Ban shatters glass recycling perception

SANDPOINT - Bonner County can no longer bury the glass it accepts at waste collection sites, Solid Waste Director Leslie Marshall said on Tuesday.

Marshall said Idaho Department of Environmental Quality is ordering the county to stop crushing and burying glass because of the labels, stenciling and other materials included on bottles and containers.

The county puts the crushed glass in pits containing other inert debris at the Colburn, Idaho Hill and Dickensheet collection sites. It began burying glass in the late 1990s to cut the cost of shipping Bonner County's trash to a landfill in Enterprise, Ore.

The DEQ directive shatters the perception that glass in Bonner County is actually being recycled. Although it's being removed from the county's waste stream, the glass is not being reused, said Marshall.

Glass collected in the city of Sandpoint's recycling program also winds up in the county's inert material pits at, said Marshall. Waste Management has a contract with the city to pick up materials for recycling, but the company takes the glass to Colburn for disposal.

The county's previous Public Works director experimented with putting glass into the mix of road rebuilding materials, but the practice raised questions and objections from the public. Chuck Spickelmire, the county's Road & Bridge supervisor, said he was unaware of the glass actually damaging motorists' tires, but urged county commissioners not to resurrect the experiment.

The glass burial ban follows a DEQ directive that the county cease burning woody debris at Colburn. Commission Chairman Lewis Rich expressed weariness with the state implementing bans without offering advice on alternative methods.

“All they do is throw up a roadblock you can't get around,” said Rich.