Glass To Become Harder To Recycle

Weyerhaeuser Co., the main recycling company in Wichita, Kansas, says it will stop taking glass bottles Dec 1.

Glass costs more to ship than it is worth to the processors who melt down old bottles and make new ones.

Weyerhaeuser, which processes items from drop-off boxes throughout Sedgwick County, Kansas, has been paying about $7 a ton, or about $280 a month, to subsidize glass recycling.

With all recycling markets in the dumps the past 18 months, the company decided to call it quits on glass.

"It was a decision that was hard to make," said Bridget Lemen, the plant manager.

"We couldn't come up with any redeeming reason to keep doing it," she said. "There are places that have mountains of glass sitting around. People can't afford to work with it."

That leaves one company, Kamen Inc., 800 E. 21st St., in the glass recycling business.

Owner Sheldon Kamen said he currently takes glass as a public service.

"If the amount Weyerhaeuser takes is transferred to us, it's going to cause a problem," he said.

Plastic recycling also is struggling.

Two companies, Second Chance Plastics and PlasticHood Recycling Co., have stopped taking plastic items such as butter tubs and fast-food containers.

The problem in recycling markets come at a time when the Sedgwick County Commission is encouraging people to recycle through advertising campaigns.

The lack of markets could drive the area's recycling rate, which is already well below the national average, even lower.

There is some hope.

Sedgwick County, which funds the drop-off recycling program, is hoping to find something to recycle in place of glass. It may add bins for magazines or other types of paper in December.

Throughout the nation, communities are struggling to collect glass and plastic. New York City has announced it will no longer take glass and plastic.

"The national trend is that most places are stopping to recycle," said Andy Schlapp, a project manager for Sedgwick County who works with trash issues. "Wichita is part of that trend. We have to be sensitive to the markets and stay abreast of what can and cannot be recycled."

County residents and businesses throw away about 1,200 tons of glass a month. Most of that ends up in a landfill. Only 40 tons a month are recycled through the drop-off program.

Part of the challenge of recycling glass is that it is so much fun to toss in the bins and break.

But if the bin dividers separating the brown from green glass slips, or if a green bottle is tossed in to the clear glass bin, the glass will cost more to get rid of.