REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE
Please recycle used clothing, eyeglasses, toys, appliances, books, furniture and other items in good working condition by donating them to your favorite charitable organizations.

2020 Changes to Recycling

Recycling Bins

Blue bags are no longer acceptable. Use clear plastic bags or blue bins for residential recycling. Blue bins are not provided by the City of Erie. Place clear recycling bags or blue bins curbside weekly apart from trash on regular refuse collection nights. If you are looking to get rid of your blue bags, they are accepted back at most major grocers in Erie County. Please call your local grocer to find out if they accept blue bags.

Plastic bags cause significant issues with the equipment at recycling facilities, jamming up the machines and requiring the entire facility to halt operations so the plastic film can be removed.
These delays affect the success of overall recycling operations and can impact the cost of the program.

• Glass Recycling
  We know it is very disappointing that we are no longer able to recycle glass with all the other recyclable items.  Unfortunately, this is because the glass breaks and shards of glass get mixed in with all the other plastic and paper recyclables.  Once the shards of glass embed in the other paper and plastic items, they cannot be separated.   This basically ruins not only the glass, but the paper and other plastics as well, making the whole bag of recyclables un-able to be recycled.  If we keep accepting glass mixed with other items, once the glass breaks, all the items in the same bag/bin are being thrown into the trash. In an effort to keep the entire bag/bin of recyclable items from being thrown in the trash, we removed glass from our program.  So for now, all glass must be disposed of with the garbage.  By removing the glass and keeping it from breaking and mixing broken shards in with the other recyclables, we are now at least able to keep recycling the paper, plastic and also the metals.

  Needless to say, there are not even any local recycling businesses that will accept glass.  That is the problem: when no recycling facilities will accept the broken glass mixed with other items, the waste companies have no choice but to throw the bags into the garbage.  In some places, waste haulers are still accepting glass, but often the glass is still not being recycled.  Instead, the glass is being re-used as road base to drive on the landfills themselves, but none of it is being recycled into new glass products.

  There are a few glass recycling facilities that still accept glass, as a separate item, but they are quite a distance away.

  Here is a list of glass recycling facilities nearest to Erie:

  Ardagh Glass            www.ardaghgroup.com                1 Glass Place, Port Allegany PA 16743                      814-642-2521

  Bradish Glass            www.bradishglass.com                 444 Willow Crossing Rd, Greensburg PA 15601    724-837-5100

  CAP Glass                   www.capglassrecycling.com       1005 Modulus Rd, Mt Pleasant PA 15666                724-547-4550

  Dlubak Glass             www.dlubak.com                            1600 Saxonburg Rd, Natrona Heights PA 15065   724-224-6611

  Owens-Illnois Crenshaw Plant  www.o-i.com             Rt 219 N / 1260 Cherry St, Brockport PA 15823    814-261-5360

  RecycALL                                                                                    4832 Rt 155, Port Allegany PA 16743                        814-558-1995

  Strategic Materials  www.strategicmaterials.com     2323 West 3^rd St, Cleveland OH 44113                     216-241-4450

  We are fully committed to trying to find a way to recycle our glass.  We are working together with Erie County, several neighboring municipalities and all four of our local universities to try and find some solutions.  We have already formed a committee and have met several times looking into several different options in regard to recycling glass and what the future of recycling will look like in Erie and across the whole state of Pennsylvania.

• Plastic Recycling
  Unfortunately, we also had to change what plastics we can recycle.  Due to the current market, there are no recycling facilities that will accept plastic items that are made using injection molding and only certain plastic items that are made using blow molding have a value to be recycled and used by potential plastic buyers.  The plastic items that are recyclable are any plastic item with a threaded or screw-top lid, which are mostly #1 and #2 plastics.  These items are BOTTLES, JUGS and JARS, (such as: water bottles, laundry detergent jugs, and peanut butter jars).

  We cannot collect an item for recycling, unless we have an end user who is willing to purchase and recycle that item. China used to accept most of the #3, 4, 5, and 7 plastics, but it turns out that most of these plastics were not actually being recycled.  They were mostly being burned for fuel.

• Paper Recycling
  For 2020, we are still accepting shredded paper.  However, any item smaller than 2 inches will fall through the grates and up as garbage.  therefore, shredded paper should be placed in its own blue/clear bag, separate from any other materials, so it can be pulled aside.  Junk mail is also still being accepted as long as it is larger than 2” x 2”.   Envelopes are also accepted, but no plastic windows.

Here is link to a really good article that helps explain some of the issues and what we’re dealing with.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-era-of-easy-recycling-may-be-coming-to-an-end/.
Thank you for caring about recycling.

Where to Take It?

Almost Everything Can Be Recycled Somewhere In Our Community