NEW ORLEANS – Today, Thursday, September 24, 2015, the City of New Orleans will begin glass recycling in the French Quarter and the Downtown Development District (DDD).
Empire Services, the City’s collection contractor in these areas, will begin collecting glass on Thursday of each week from properties eligible to receive sanitation services from the City. Eligible residents and small businesses can utilize blue or black bins with the imprinted recycling logo.
“We are pleased that Empire can now recycle glass for our customers in downtown New Orleans,” said Cynthia Sylvain-Lear, director of the City of New Orleans Sanitation Department.” We heard residents’ requests for glass recycling and are proud to deliver this service. Recycling benefits the environment and the City’s bottom line. The glass processor selected intends to recycle the product into highway and road aggregate material. The more residents recycle, the less we will have to pay in landfill costs.”
Residents and small businesses are to continue to recycle paper, small metals, cardboard and plastics (#1-#7) on Tuesday of each week. Glass must not be placed in the bins for the Tuesday collection. If a second bin is desired, so that residents and small businesses can store glass separately from other recyclables on their properties, they can purchase an additional blue bin at a number of local stores, with the recycling logo imprinted.
Any eligible resident or small business, which has not signed up for a free recycling bin, can call 311 to have a bin delivered. Eligible properties include those which contain four units or less under one roof, not a hotel, restaurant or a bar and which generate no more than 35 gallons of solid waste at each regular collection.
Nationwide, glass has consistently presented challenges to collection companies, processors and cities. Due to breakage, glass often contaminates other items in the waste stream that may reduce the ability to recycle other materials. Instituting a second collection day will eliminate this potential problem. It is also necessary to have a different recycling collection day for glass, as the product is taken to a different processor.
