environment

But not in Parowan, Utah.  The blue bins, our closest recycling resource, recently stopped accepting glass.

The recycling program began in Brian Head, run by Cedar City company Pure Recycling, which this year earned an award for being the recycling company of the year in southern Utah. The program also serves Cedar Breaks National Monument.

The bins appeared in Parowan late last year, about the same time recycling bins disappeared from the Wal-Mart in Cedar City.  At that time, they accepted paper (including cardboard), plastic, metals, and glass.  The city just renewed its contract with Pure Recycling last month, and committed to buying more bins.  However, a post on the city’s website notes that the cost of the program is not cheap.

The bins cost in excess of $1000 each to purchase and cost $50 each to dump each time.  The contents need to be shipped to either Las Vegas or Colorado for processing and because of the cost of transport there is no income to the city for the recycling.

Last month, the word “glass” was deleted from the list of materials accepted by a red circle/slash.  Presumably this was because glass is among the heaviest of recyclable materials, and has one of the lowest prices for recovered material.

Pure Recycling’s website says that it does accept glass at its collection facility in Cedar City.