Press Release
Brattleboro, Vermont
October 28, 2022
To reduce the increasingly high costs of recycling WSWMD will be re-instating a program to separate glass bottles and jars from single stream. Starting November 1, users of the District transfer station on Old Ferry Road, Brattleboro, will find a separate container for glass bottles and jars only, without lids. The new program is significantly less costly at $40 per ton, plus trucking. WSWMD will haul the 30 cubic yard roll-off container of glass to the Town of Springfield, VT’s highway garage where the glass is ground into an aggregate that is used locally for building and road construction.
WSWMD collects approximately 300 tons per year of single stream recycling, and the previous glass diversion program diverted almost 70 tons per year, saving about $100 per ton. The new program is expected to divert similar quantities and save even more to the higher cost of single stream recycling.
Until two years ago the District had a successful glass recycling to fiberglass but had to stop it due to the low tolerance of the fiberglass manufacturing process for contamination with other types of glass, such as ceramics, candles, and beverage glasses.
Robert Spencer, Executive Director, explained that the cost for single stream recycling has more than doubled since July, going from $57 per ton to $123 per ton in October, the tipping fee Casella Waste charges at its materials recycling facility in Rutland, VT. The hauling costs from Brattleboro to Rutland have also increased significantly in the past few months and now adds $117.50/ton for a total cost of $240.50 per ton. In comparison, the cost for trash disposal, including hauling, is $113.00/ton, so recycling is currently more than twice the cost of recycling.
It is expected that the crushed and screened glass will be available to contractors in the region.