LATEST NEWS

May 27th, 2008 - TUNXIS RECYCLING OPERATING COMMITTEE WILL COLLECT HOUSEHOLD COMPUTERS AND TVs. The Tunxis Recycling Operating Committee (TROC) region announces (...) [ read more ]

February 29th, 2008 - BRRFOC Adopts Fiscal 2008-2009 Budget. Committee holds the line on tipping fees for fourth consecutive year; Recycling fees also to (...) [ read more ]

LATEST LEGISLATION

March 10th, 2008 - Raised Bill 5138, LCO 631. An Act Concerning Private, Municipal and State Recycling. Raised Bill 5138, LCO 631. An Act Concerning Private, Municipal and State RecyclingTestimony of the (...) [ read more ]

March 10th, 2008 - SB636. An Act Concerning Resource Recovery Facility Contracts. SB636. An Act Concerning Resource Recovery Facility ContractsTestimony of the Bristol Resource Recovery Facility Operating (...) [ read more ]

Glass

U.S. recycling rates for glass declined by nearly 50% over the past 10 years, according to the Container Recycling Institute. In the early years of TROC's recycling program, the sales of recycled clear glass were a major portion of revenues from recovered products. Towards the end of the 1990s, U.S. glass processors began shuttering furnaces throughout the U.S. as market share declined as a result of competition from lighter weight plastic and aluminum, and the use of glass for milk containers is virtually nonexistent.

There is limited demand for using recycled glass cullet, the product made by purifying post-consumer glass, to make new beverage containers in the U.S., and EPA estimates the national recycling rate is slightly over 25%. Much of WMRA's recycled glass is sold to a major U.S. processor which utilizes advanced optical sorting technology and multiple sorting steps to prepare products for sale to overseas markets. Few domestic markets exist for making new glass from recycled glass, primarily because of potential contamination of the processed glass cullet; common impurities include ceramics and leaded glass.