ATLANTA – In response to local recycling companies increasingly rejecting glass materials for recycling, Atlanta City Councilmember Carla Smith is encouraging city residents to take their glass items to The Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM), a city-supported recycling facility located at 1110 Hill Street, S.E.
CHaRM is open (except holidays) on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. and on Saturdays from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. and will accept glass bottles and food grade glass jars.
It is a permanent drop-off facility that aims to improve our environmental health by encouraging reuse and diverting thousands of pounds of household hazardous waste, bulky trash and other hard to recycle items from Metro-Atlanta landfills and water systems.
CHaRM’s benefits to the community include an easily accessible and convenient location and it accepts a wider range of items than typical curbside recycling. The facility was created through legislation drafted by Councilmember Smith and her colleague Alex Wan.
“It’s important that we do our part to free our landfills of non-biodegradable waste,” Smith said. “A growing number of recyclers in metro Atlanta are refusing to recycle glass to cut costs and opting to take the material to local landfills and that’s greatly disappointing.”
Councilmember Smith said while recycling properly does cost money, Live Thrive Atlanta which runs CHaRM, a non-profit, does welcome donations to continue its environmental mission.
“Strategic Materials, located in southwest Atlanta is our processor (https://www.strategicmaterials.com/) is happy to support CHaRM,” said Peggy Whitlow Ratcliffe, CHaRM’s executive director. “We are already bringing additional containers to the center to receive Atlanta’s glass recyclables.” According to their website Strategic Materials processes glass into clean, manufacturable product.
Smith, the host of Atlanta’s annual EcoDepot recycling event, and Ratcliffe are responding to the A1 Sunday Atlanta Journal-Constitution story, “Metro Atlanta recyclers reject glass, ship it to landfills.”
Recyclers have cited increased costs for sorting mixed recyclables and have opted for a less environmentally friendly route. “Rather than go to the trouble of separating glass from other materials, recycling companies have decided it’s less expensive to ship glass-filled debris to area landfills,” the report said.
While other “recycling companies treat glass like garbage, because it can slash more valuable recyclables like cardboard and paper. Shards can also damage recycling machinery or pose an injury risk to workers,” according to the story.
A complete list of the wide-range of items (including glass bottles and food grade glass jars) that CHaRM will accept can be found athttps://livethrive.org/charm/items-accepted/
For more information about CHaRM visit https://livethrive.org/charm/
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