We’re passing along a message to our Tennessee customers: Anderson County will no longer recycle glass.
On August 15, WestRock, Anderson County’s recycling vendor, informed Anderson County Solid Waste that they will no longer accept glass for “receiving, handling, and marketing of glass bottles and jars collected at (the) county’s drop off centers.” The change went into effect on September 1.
On August 29, the Marlow Convenience Center stopped accepting glass in order to accommodate the change. Residents were advised to begin throwing away their glass in the regular trash.
Anderson County Solid Waste did attempt to find an alternative way to allow residents to continue recycling glass. The issue is that all vendors that accept glass are located in the Nashville area. In addition, they only accept clear glass, and not green or amber, and offer a rate of $30 per ton.
Anderson County produces 35-50 tons of glass for recycling each year, about a third of which is clear. That means the county could earn about $500 each year for recyclable glass. However, since the cost of hauling the loads is $1,500-$2,000 per ton, it would cost the county around $40,000 each year to haul the glass, so it simply is not feasible to continue recycling it.