Glass Recycling Methods

Recycling helps improve the overall health of the Earth's environment. Doing your part by recycling material such as paper, plastic and even glass can dramatically improve the quality of the Earth's atmosphere. Depending on your location, you can recycle glass by various methods, all of them easy.

Gathering Glass

• Gather all of the glass that you plan to recycle and organize the glass by its color. Glass must be separated by color to prevent the creation of a color mix during the recycling process and to make things go more smoothly if you need to take the glass to a recycling center. Additionally, some recycling programs have restrictions and refuse to accept certain brands and types of glass, such as Pyrex, because they are treated with contaminants during the manufacturing process. Check with your local recycling program or plant to verify that the type of glass you have collected is accepted by them.

Drop Off

• Most regions in the United States recycle glass by at least one method. If your city pickup does not take glass items for recycling, you may need to take your glass recyclables to the nearest glass-recycling center. Different recycling plants have different requirements pertaining to how the glass should be wrapped, delivered and contained. Call your local recycling center for information.

Mail Your Glass

• Based upon your location, your area may not provide glass recycling. If you need to recycle glass but cannot do it locally, many places online and other recycling plants offer a mail-in recycling service. Requirements of each plant vary, so call ahead of time for specifics. Once you package your recyclable glass properly, you simply mail it to the recycling center with which you have made arrangements. The recycling center will take care of the remainder of the recycling process.