Thirsty? Well, maybe think before you drink …

Did you know that recycling one glass bottle saves enough electricity to light a 100-watt light bulb for four hours?

Did you also know that a six-pack of recycled beer bottles could not only quench your thirst on a hot summer day but produce enough fiberglass insulation to fill a standard wall cavity?

Then just imagine how long one glass bottle would light an LED, said Matt O’ Connell, Recycling Coordinator for the City of Omaha, Environmental Quality Control.

In return, he asks residents of Omaha to do their turn and help recycle glass to create a cleaner and greener environment for us all.

He said that recycling glass saves energy, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and saves landfill space, which are just some of its far-reaching benefits.

Do you need more proof? Consider a few other recycling incentives:

• Container glass is 100% recyclable, can be recycled endlessly, and is a primary ingredient in fiberglass insulation and new glass containers.
• Burying perfectly good glass in a landfill wastes all the material, energy, and labor that goes into making it.
• Using recycled glass produces 20 percent less air pollution and 50 percent less water pollution than creating new glass (or fiberglass) from raw materials.
• Every ton of glass that’s recycled results in more than one ton of raw materials saved. That’s 1,300 pounds of sand, 410 pounds of soda ash, 380 pounds of limestone, and 150 lbs. of feldspar, O’Connell said.

To make the process easier, the City of Omaha now has eight collection sites located throughout the metro area.

Even better news …

“The City of Omaha is working with Keep Omaha Beautiful to locate a new glass drop-off site in the northeast area of Omaha,” Matt O’Connell said.

In addition, Omaha has received a grant from the Glass Recycling Foundation to purchase 9,000 heavy-duty tote bags to promote glass recycling.

“The bags will be handed out at outreach events. The order has been placed, and we expect to receive the shipment of tote bags this summer,” he said.

Managed by the Public Works Department, Omaha’s glass recycling program was established decades ago, funded by a combination of sales, property, and occupational taxes, he said.

Back then glass was accepted with curbside recycling, as a free service offered to city residents. 

“This was before Omaha switched to ‘single stream’ recycling. All recyclables were sorted into separate compartments in the collection truck, and residents had to separate glass by color,” said O’Connell.

“In 2005, Omaha switched to ‘single stream’ recycling where all materials would go into one single bin. Glass was removed from accepted material in the curbside cart.”

The reason being, that recyclables are being collected using compactor trucks, commonly referred to as garbage trucks.

“The compactor truck is much more efficient for collection, however, it breaks the glass and the broken glass contaminates the other recyclables,” he said, not to mention a safety hazard for handlers in the recycling process.

In 2021, the city entered into an even more impactful collection contract for garbage and recycling, as well as a new recycling processing contract. 

“The collection contractor is FCC Environmental, and the processing contractor is Firstar Fiber”, O’Connell said.

“The processing contract uses a weighted average commodity value to determine the monthly processing fee for the city. This provides savings to the city when recycling markets are performing well and shares the risk with the contractor when the market values are low,” he explained.

And, there’s already been a ton – to say the least – of payoffs …

In 2023, alone, the city of Omaha collected 22,350 tons of recycling. Of that number, 18,355 tons were collected curbside, 2,160 tons were dropped off at collection sites, in addition to 1,835 tons of glass.

And, in a sense, if everyone does their part, it could generate what could be called a “ripple” effect.

“Omaha has a successful agreement with Ripple Glass to recycle our glass, and they have indicated they would like to receive even more glass from us,“ O’Connell explained of the Kansas City service.

“They have reported the glass we send them is some of the cleanest material they receive. Glass is heavy, which increases cost at the landfill if it is mixed with household garbage. We would love to recover more glass in Omaha and keep it out of the landfill,” O’Connell said.

In fact, it’s a true case of one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

“The city started receiving a small payment for the glass we send to Ripple. We do have to pay a fee to ‘bunker' our glass at a facility until it is sent to Ripple. The payment from Ripple offsets the 'bunkering' fee, so this actually makes our glass recycling a lower cost than sending it to the landfill,” he explained.

Although there may be some private contractors who offer curbside collection, Omaha residents may deposit their recyclable glass in the purple bins, provided at any of the drop-off sites, free of charge. 

Their locations and recycling information are listed on Omaha’s Solid Waste Program web site: https://www.wasteline.org.

Since the Omaha recycling drop-off sites are funded with tax revenue from Omaha residents, they are intended to be used by Omaha residents. 

Matt O’Connell  encourages outlaying residents to contact their local public works department to learn more about recycling opportunities in their communities. 

“Reduce, reuse, recycle is the proper order,” according to O’Connell, if we want to help protect and preserve our environment for generations to come. 

“Glass can be reused for storage containers instead of single-use plastic packaging, can be recycled into new containers an endless number of times, and using more glass instead of plastic would help reduce the amount of plastic that is put into our waste stream,” he touts of the benefits.

Simply do a quick rinse to remove any remaining food. However, do not place cardboard or plastic bags in the container, just the glass, he said, of the collection process.

However, not all glass is created equally.

When it comes glass recycling, there’s container glass and everything else, according to the Glass Recycling Coalition.

That’s because non-containers, such as mirrors and certain dishes, are treated with chemicals to make them more durable, but lessens the recycling market for them, it said.

In addition, the first step in glass recycling is to melt the product in a furnace.

“Treated glass has a different melting point. If glassware were to be recycled with glass bottles, the glassware wouldn’t melt, and therefore contaminate the entire load,” the coalition said.

Omaha will accept the following:

•               Glass food and beverage containers, all colors. Labels don’t need to be removed.

•               Drinking vessels, including pint, wine and mason jars

•               Candle jars, left-over wax ok

•               Cosmetic bottles and jars

•               Windows, shower doors, table tops, frames and hardware removed

Non-acceptable items include:

•               Cardboard boxes, trash bags

•               Porcelain

•               Ceramic

•               Milk glass

•               China or leaded glass

•               Mirrors

•               Laminated glass or windshields

•               Pyrex or Corning ware

•               Dishware, such as Corelle

•               Light bulbs

•               TVs

Once it is sent to Ripple Glass, it is cleaned, crushed, separated and ground into cullet, the industry term for recycled glass, which is then turned into new glass bottles and insulation and for other uses.

Ripple gathers more than 800 tons of glass every week, according to its web site, from businesses and residents in the Kansas City area and surrounding region, which then processes it into usable materials for remanufacturing.

Uses include recycled glass countertops, pebbles for landscaping, logos and signage on stadium grounds, glass beads for non-slip surfaces, traffic lane markings, aggregate in concrete, flux in brick manufacture, AstroTurf, water filtration media and more.

Advances in technology, such as AI-powered sorting systems, innovations in cleaning and storing, coupled with the public’s awareness and compliance on the importance of recycling, are helping make great strides in protecting the environment. 

And, lest not forget, what’s good for the planet, is good for its people.

“Glass is a healthier option,” according to the Glass Packaging Institute, a trade association representing the North American glass container industry.

Not only are glass containers 40 percent lighter than they were 30 years ago, but glass is the only packaging material certified by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration as “generally regarded as safe,” it said.

Simply put, nontoxic and FDA approved, glass doesn’t leach chemicals into the product it holds.

“Glass is nonporous and impermeable, so there are no interactions between glass packaging and products to affect the flavor of food and beverages. No nasty after taste – ever. Glass has an almost zero rate of chemical interaction, ensuring that the products inside a glass bottle keep their strength, aroma, and flavor,” among the many benefits, listed their web site.

But before we raise our glasses to glass, consider this …

“Glass water bottles are becoming more and more popular as people become aware of the environmental and health dangers of plastic. Even still, the average American uses 167 disposable water bottles, but only recycles 38% of those,” it said.

“According to the American Water Works Association, almost two-thirds of all bottled water sales are single 16.9 oz bottles – making the cost around $7.50 per gallon,” it stated.

Or, to put it in more concrete terms …

“That is nearly 2,000 times the cost of a gallon of tap water – which is only $0.004 a gallon – and twice the cost of a gallon of regular gasoline.”

Think it might be worth recycling ... By now, the answer should be crystal clear.

For further information, please call (402) 444-5238.