WASHINGTON — QUESTION:
Can you still recycle glass in your curbside bin anywhere in Northern Virginia?
ANSWER:
Yes. Fredericksburg, Stafford, Loudoun, Manassas and Spotsylvania still permit glass in single stream recycling.
Alexandria, Fairfax, Prince William and Arlington have already eliminated it. Falls Church is implementing the ban in 2020.
SOURCES:
M.C. Morris -- Outreach Supervisor, R-Board/Landfill & Clean Community Crew
Katie O'Brien -- Communications Specialist, Arlington County Dept. of Environmental Services
Glen Barbour -- Public Affairs, County of Loudoun
Sarah Godfrey -- Public Information Officer, Department of Transportation & Environmental Services, City of Alexandria
Matthew Kaiser -- Information Officer, Fairfax County Dept. of Public Works and Environmental Services
Susan Finarelli -- Director of Communications, City of Falls Church
Monica Boehringer -- Refuse and Recycling Coordinator, Manassas City
Michelle McGinnis -- Director of Community Engagement, Spotsylvania County Government
PROCESS:
This week, Alexandria announced that starting on Jan.15, 2020, the city is eliminating glass from single stream recycling. That means glass bottles and jars no longer have a place in your blue curbside bin.
City officials decided to end curbside glass recycling, due to recycling contamination, rising recycling costs and the lack of regional glass-sorting facilities. Glass collected in curbside recycling by City contractors is ending up as trash in landfills.
"We project that removing glass will result in a savings of approximately $46,000 in the first year and more savings in subsequent years," Sarah Godfrey, a spokesperson for Alexandria's Department of Transportation and Environmental Services, said.
This move isn’t new. Alexandria is following what neighboring counties have already done.
So that got us wondering: can you still recycle glass in your curbside bin anywhere in Northern Virginia?
Our Verify researchers checked county by county to find out.
The team found that five counties will still let you recycle empty glass bottles and jars in the blue bin, including Fredericksburg, Stafford, Loudoun, Manassas and Spotsylvania.
Residents of Fairfax, Prince William and Arlington can't recycle glass on the curb. In 2020, Falls Church and Alexandria residents won’t be able to either.
Fairfax stopped accepting glass in recycling bins on Oct. 1, and Arlington banned it beginning in May.
If you live in a county that doesn’t have curbside glass recycling, you can still recycle glass items.
Collect glass separately and take it to a purple recycling container, which are located at libraries, rec centers and landfills. Here is a map to find a purple bin closest to you:
The glass in these glass-only bins are taken to a pulverizing machine in Fairfax.
Pulverized glass was recently used as bedding in construction projects to stabilize a new sewer pipe in Fairfax County.
"“For years, most glass has passed through the recycling process as residue, or waste," Fairfax County says on their website. "Some of the glass is applied as alternative daily landfill cover, an approved use by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, but most of it is simply landfilled with other unrecyclable waste. Glass collected in the purple containers is handled differently. That glass is crushed and reused for county projects.”
So, we can verify that some counties still let you recycle glass the old way in your blue bin, but Northern Virginia residents are being encouraged to think of purple as the new blue.