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Clarke County resident Christi McMullen has voluntarily spearheaded a glass recycling project since May. The effort has kept about 10,000 bottles discarded in Clarke County from going to the Regional Landfill in Frederick County.
Clarke County resident Christi McMullen has voluntarily spearheaded a glass recycling project since May. The effort has kept about 10,000 bottles discarded in Clarke County from going to the Regional Landfill in Frederick County.
BERRYVILLE — A new glass recycling program has kept about 10,000 bottles discarded in Clarke County over the past three months from going into a landfill, according to the person who started it.
As a result, the amount of garbage hauled from the county’s convenience center on Quarry Road to the Regional Landfill in Frederick County was lessened by more than three tons — 6,858 pounds to be exact, Christi McMullen told the Clarke County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
That saved the county money, McMullen pointed out. An exact amount hadn’t been determined. However, tipping fees at the landfill for common types of garbage and debris run up to $52 per ton, its website shows.
Diverting the glass from the landfill also has benefited the environment, McMullen said. In addition to saving about six cubic yards of space in the dumpsite, the recycling effort has reduced carbon dioxide emissions in the county by about 22½ pounds, she estimated.
McMullen called those amounts “small but significant.”
“But over time,” she said, “I think we can really help the county to save money and help the Earth at the same time.”
The supervisors were delighted to hear McMullen’s report.
Board Chairman David Weiss and County Administrator Chris Boies mentioned that the program has become extremely popular with convenience center users in just a short period.
Weiss, the Buckmarsh District supervisor, said he frequently sees people depositing glass when he visits the center.
Teasing Sheriff Tony Roper, who was at the supervisors meeting, Boies told him, “You always brag that you’re the most popular person in the county.”
“I think she’s surpassed you,” he said of McMullen. Roper smiled.
A county resident, McMullen has voluntarily spearheaded the glass recycling project since May.
Before then, glass wasn’t accepted at the convenience center because there isn’t as much demand for it as there is for other types of recyclable materials, a county webpage shows.
Many recycling centers nationwide also don’t accept glass, according to environment-related websites, for that reason and others, including safety concerns and higher transportation costs because it’s heavier than other materials.
Glass bottles and jars now are put into a trailer at the convenience center. McMullen collects them. She uses a glass-crushing machine she owns to pulverize the glass into sand that can be used for various purposes, including arts and crafts projects and making children’s sandboxes.
She sells 35-pound bags of sand for $5, she said.
Even if recycling glass isn’t profitable on a large-scale basis, “doing it this way is affordable,” said McMullen.
”I don’t want this to become a business,” she noted. “This is just me wanting to help people out of my garage.”
She was inspired to provide the assistance, she said, upon realizing that “we live in a county full of breweries and wineries,” yet there was no way to recycle the bottles used for their products.
Still, someone else may turn glass recycling into a business, McMullen said. Crushing machines roughly the size of a speaker’s podium in an auditorium can be purchased for about $7,000, she said.
She hopes to eventually start a fund to help people buy the equipment, she added.
— Contact Mickey Powell at mpowell@winchesterstar.com
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