Seattle Can’t Recycle Its Glass, but Plastic Is Still the ArchvillainSeattle Can’t Recycle Its Glass, but Plastic Is Still the Archvillain

I have said many times all recycling is local. A great example of this is the recent announcement that Seattle and other cities in northwest Washington are no longer recycling glass bottles.

Yes, it’s shockingly true. A material always touted as an alternative to plastic bottles now can’t be recycled as the company performing the transformation of used glass into new wine bottles, Ardagh Group, is shutting down its Georgetown location because of pressure from low-priced imports. In some locales, the bottles are now treated as solid waste and disposed of as such, while in others, they are being stockpiled, awaiting a future meltdown.

The reaction from the public and news media is in stark contrast to news on the recycling efforts for plastics. Everyone is very supportive of the effort to recycle glass and hopes that a new recycling outlet can be found quickly. Nobody questions whether glass can be recycled. Nobody is trying to change the legal definition of whether or not glass is “recyclable.” Nobody accuses “Big Glass” of foisting an environmental disaster on the public. 

If only plastic recycling had such support and understanding. Instead, it’s bans. It’s lawsuits. It's knee-jerk hate from environmentalists. 

They're shocked! Shocked to find that businesses need to turn a profit

Some people in Seattle are shocked to find out that recycling is not a government project. It is an effort run by businesses and to be effective requires favorable economics. Few businesses can continue for long when they start losing money. If low-cost imports bring down prices for a finished product — in this case, wine bottles — the competition hurts the domestic recycling market. The same is true for low-cost imports affecting any other industry segment.

In contrast with other large-scale recycling efforts, recycling glass is challenging because of some of its inherent properties. Glass is an inexpensive but dense material, so it’s difficult to justify shipping it long distances. Consequently, the recycling is usually performed locally. This stops the obvious solution of shipping the glass to another city to be recycled there.

The recycling is further challenged by the importance of segregating colors, particularly green. Mixing a little brown and clear into each other isn’t a showstopper, but green doesn’t play well with either one. Blue? Nope, not happening. So even if your local pickup/drop-off doesn’t require segregating by color, somewhere down the line it is probably sorted. 

Glass recycling rates are approximately 31% (based on mass) and this rate has been fairly steady for decades despite the widespread knowledge that it can be recycled. Fourteen percent of glass is burned, and the balance ends up in landfill (except for the rare bottles carrying ocean-bound messages).

Plastic bottles are an obvious alternative

The obvious suggestion while Seattle waits for a glass-recycling solution would be to switch over to plastic bottles, but I don’t think that would be too well received. Deposits on bottles would also be an idea, but that always seems to have huge resistance wherever it is proposed. (I truly don’t understand why, but, admittedly, haven’t looked into the issue too closely.)

Look at all the issues I just listed with recycling glass. It is dense, inexpensive, requires color sorting, can only be recycled locally, and only 31% of it is recycled nationwide. Despite all of this, the public is clearly supportive of the effort and looks favorably toward glass as a packaging material. Why can't it be like this with plastics?