“Is that container for glass?” a passenger in a sedan asked Blount County Highway Superintendent Jeff Headrick. As Headrick informed the passenger that the blue collection bin was indeed for glass recycling, the car moved closer to the bin and a small line began to form at the Blount County Recycling Center.
Blount County began accepting glass at its recycling center, located at 331 Levi Street in Maryville, July 15. With just under a week of collection in the books Thursday, July 21, highway department officials were very pleased with the reception they’ve seen from the community and are hopeful that the glass recycling program they’ve built is strong enough to last.
It’s been five years since the cities of Alcoa and Maryville stopped collecting glass recycling, but demand for it has stayed steady over that time, county highway department operations manager Jim Cox told The Daily Times.
“The number one complaint we received, 90% of them, were, ‘you all don’t take glass,’” Cox noted.
The high cost of glass recycling was a major factor in the cities’ decision to discontinue those programs in 2017. After paying for the glass to be taken away, they lost money, Cox said.
Nearly simultaneous with the end of the municipal collection programs, the Blount County Highway Department started work to build a glass recycling program capable of both serving community needs and sustaining itself over time.
To build that capability, department staff put in years of effort, applying for grant funding, explaining the project to elected officials and, finally, setting up the machinery that would make it possible.
That machinery includes an on-site mill capable of grinding glass into a powder fine enough for comparison to confectioners’ sugar. After going from the collection bin on Levi Street to the mill a few hundred yards away, the glass is pulverized and converted into one of three types of recycled materials, ranging from ? of an inch to a pure powder.
From that point, the department can turn those materials to its own purposes. After it’s run through the mill, recycled glass can be used in a variety of road repairs, as well as in walking trails, pipe bedding and farm soil. The highway department’s savings on those materials translate into savings for tax-payers, Headrick said.
“We have cities and counties that are interested in bringing us their glass and then dumping it and leaving with finished product to take back,” he explained. He also noted that the mill’s impact on the county landfill would be “monstrous,” likely adding significantly to its total lifespan.
Other than laminated safety glass, any glass type can be recycled at the center. The thickness of laminated safety glass precludes it from being recycled through the mill.
Highway department officials told The Daily Times that they ask recyclers to remove lids and caps from their glass before disposing of it. Labels do not need to be removed prior to disposal.
The road to a county glass recycling program was circuitous. The department applied for grant funding and received about $40,000, but that left them with a gap that was filled locally. Headrick singled out the Blount County Commission and its budget subcommittee as entities that helped to move the project along.
Initially, he said, the task was primarily explaining how the program would work — what the glass mill would be able to do and why the highway department was interested in obtaining one.
“When we were ready to go and fund it, COVID hit,” Headrick said. COVID-19 pushed project completion back by about two years, he commented.
As he’s spoken to people through the county, state and country, Headrick said, he’s noticed that the aspect of his department that has drawn the most public interest is recycling.
Glass recycling, specifically, has intrigued large numbers of people. “We thought it would be just adjoining counties. It’s become state-wide and nationwide,” Headrick said of interest in the glass mill.
Chico Messer, assistant highway superintendent for the county, also commented that the glass recycling program is attracting national interest. Major municipal and county governments have called the highway department to inquire about its workings and progress, he said.
“We’re the first ones doing this, so everyone’s looking at us, seeing how we do,” Cox added.