Dive Brief:

• Baton Rouge Metro Council is considering ending its glass recycling program. If the move is approved by the group later this month, glass recycling will end Nov. 1.
• In negotiating a three-year extension of a decade-long recycling contract with Progressive Waste Solutions, the city-parish leaders were faced with what some of them view as insurmountable costs that could come with their recycling program if they choose to continue recycling glass. To accommodate glass recycling, Progressive Waste Solutions would need to upgrade its cleaning equipment and also need to find places to sell the glass it would collect, but that all would cost Baton Rouge $735,000 annually.
• The Metro Council will vote on ending glass recycling after a public hearing on June 24.

Dive Insight:

Ironically, the success of Baton Rouge’s recycling system may spell the doom of its glass recycling. Baton Rouge has a single-stream recycling system, so all recyclables go into the same receptacle. But single-stream recycling can lead to contamination problems, as food and other unwanted waste is accidentally put into the recycling stream. Glass in that stream must be washed, but Progressive Waste Solutions doesn’t have the proper equipment in its Baton Rouge plant to do the job. 

The bigger issue looming, however, is the dwindling market for glass.