Glass Recycling Center Opens in Oregon

A joint venture formed to boost glass recycling has opened a  processing facility in Portland, Ore. Output from the plant will be made into new glass bottles and jars. The joint venture, called Glass to Glass, was formed by glass manufacturing firm Owens-Illinois (O-I) and eCullet, which describes itself as “a technology-based glass processing company.”

The Portland recycling facility will supply recycled glass to O-I’s glass plant, also is located in Portland.

“O-I is pleased to partner with eCullet on this new facility,” says Pedro Tchmola, manager of O-I’s Portland plant. “Using recycled glass in our manufacturing process is important to O-I`s sustainability efforts. This new facility will help us to reduce our use of virgin raw materials, lowering our overall environmental impact.”

Ryan Modlin, O-I North America vice president of government relations, says much of the recycled glass collected in North America comes from single-stream recycling. O-I says this collection method can result in glass that is too contaminated to be successfully reintroduced into the manufacturing process.

One of the reasons that O-I and eCullet chose Portland as the site for their Glass to Glass facility is the ample supply of quality recycled glass available through the state’s container deposit program, the companies say. The Glass to Glass facility also will process recycled glass from the state of Washington that may otherwise end up in landfills.

The two companies announced the joint venture in May of 2013 and began construction of the Glass to
Glass facility in June.