RECYCLE YOUR GLASS

Each year, Americans throw away 28 million bottles and jars. This is enough
glass to fill one of the 1,350 feet tall World Trade Center buildings 52
times a year. Of this amount, about 5 million tons, or approximately 20% of
the glass containers, are collected and recycled each year.

In Cumberland County, residents may commingle in their red recycling bucket
clear, brown, and green glass bottles and jars which contain food, beverages,
and medicine. Other glass products made from different ingredients, and by
different processes having different appearances and melting parts, should
not be included in your recycling bucket. For example; If a coffee mug is
put into a furnace that recycles glass bottles, the mug will not melt and
will cause defects in the bottles.

Recycled glass products are separated by color and processed into crushed
glass called cullet. The cullet is used for a variety of purposes including
manufacturing new glass, asphalt road base, and in the construction of
drainage ditches and storm drains.

When preparing your glass bottles and jars for recycling, follow these simple
rules:

· Empty and rinse your glass bottles and jars. Clean materials are safer,
easier for recyclers to handle, and are of better quality for recycling.
· Remove caps and lids from your jars and bottles and dispose of them in
the trash. Labels may remain on, they will be removed during the recycling
process.
· Do not break glass. Broken glass is next to impossible to color separate
and is less valuable to glass recyclers.
· Do not recycle light bulbs, glassware, ceramics, windows, mirrors, Pyrex,
or ornamental glass. Dispose of these items in your regular trash.

For more information about recycling programs in Cumberland County, contact
the Cumberland County Improvement Authority at 825-3700.