Hold on to your glass
LISA JAMES/PressThe city's first glass recycling dumpster was installed at Bluegrass Park in Coeur d'Alene this week. A second will soon go in at Cherry Hill Park.
By BETHANY BLITZ
Staff Writer
Coeur d’Alene residents no longer have to worry about broken glass at the bottom of their garbage bags.
Two glass drop-off collection bins will be placed on either end of town for community members to recycle glass starting Saturday.
The COLOR bins, that look like Dumpsters, will be at Cherry Hill Park, 1525 E. Hazel Ave., and Bluegrass Park behind Lake City High School, 6056 N. Courcelles Parkway.
“We had a petition to introduce glass recycling a while ago,” said Sharon Bosley, the outreach and development director of the Kootenai Environmental Alliance. “A lot of work went into this project, so it’s been a good team effort to get this introduced.”
The city asks residents to follow these guidelines when dropping off glass: • All types of glass bottles and jars (clear and colored) are accepted. • Remove lids, caps, plastic bags and cardboard boxes before depositing glass. • Do not leave plastic or paper bags, cardboard boxes or garbage at the drop-off sites. • Mirrors, windows, Pyrex, dishes, fish tanks, light bulbs, fluorescent light bulbs or ceramics are not accepted. • Do not place items outside the glass drop box.
Glass is still not accepted in the city’s curbside recycling program. The city said it’s using the drop-off sites instead of curbside pickup because glass can break and intermingle with recyclables like paper or cardboard.
Troy Tymesen, the city’s finance director, explained recycled glass can harm other recycled materials such as newspapers and cardboard, ultimately lowering their values — paper and cardboard recyclers don’t want to take damaged goods.
He also said shards of glass can be a safety threat to solid-waste workers.
Tymesen said he won’t know how much the project will cost until he has a good idea of how much glass is getting recycled.
“Even today it’s a tough economic project to make work,” he said, noting the project is funded with the city’s garbage fund, not property-tax dollars. “It doesn’t pay for itself because there’s not a lot of reuse.”
He added it costs more to ship the glass out of the area for reuse, and getting curbside bins for glass would also cost more.
The glass from the drop-off collection program will be hauled to a crusher. The crushed glass will then be used as a soil amendment, though the city is looking for more ideas on how to reuse the crushed glass.
Bosley said she’s heard ideas like using the crushed glass in roadway projects and Tymesen said he’s seen other cities reuse it as abrasives. Tymesen said community input on how to reuse the recycled glass is very welcome.
To give input, contact City Hall at (208)-769-2300, or Kootenai Environmental Alliance at (208)-667-9093.
“I hope that people come up with ideas,” Bosley said. “There’s definitely an opportunity here.”
For more information, the city is asking people to contact Coeur d’Alene Garbage at (208) 457-1820.