Glass Pulverizer Is in Operation

Ribbon cutting at the Pendale Citizen Collection Station
Photo by Terry Sunday

The City of El Paso is now officially in the glass recycling business even if it is just a pilot program. Rep. Lily Limón, Environmental Services Director, Ellen Smyth, and other dignitaries were on hand to launch the new recycling program at the Pendale Citizen Collection Station.

The glass pulverizer
Photo by Terry Sunday

All El Pasoans will be able to drop-off their glass beverage bottles and jars at their neighborhood collection stations. (No window panes, automobile windshields, ceramics or glass figurines please.) The bottles will be taken to the Pendale Station where they will be pulverized. The resulting powder or beads may be used as mulch, road bedding, arts and crafts, etc.

Photo by Terry Sunday

Bottles should be separated by color: blue, brown, clear and green.

Glass Recycling Begins This Wednesday

Click on image to enlarge.

Glass recycling in El Paso begins on Wednesday. The ribbon-cutting event begins at 10 AM at the Pendale Citizen Collection Station, 1034 Pendale in east El Paso. (MAP) 

City Council will view a presentation about the pulverizer at its regular meeting tomorrow morning. You can see that presentation HERE.

The good news is that you can take your glass to any of the citizen collection stations in El Paso. 

Laurence Gibson, Chair of the El Paso Group Rio Grande Chapter Sierra Club tells us: "El Paso's Environmental Services Department is now collecting glass at all five Citizen Collection Stations for processing into pulverized glass at the Pendale Road Station. All we have to do is take our clean glass containers to a Citizen Collection Station, separate by color, and we're done. If you want free mulch from glass, you may pick that up at 1034 Pendale Road. This is a hot commodity at the Mesilla Valley Landfill, where the bins are almost always empty."

Glassware just needs to be clean and dry. The pulverizer removes labels.

Remember glass recycling is just a pilot program. How can we help make it permanent? Laurence Gibson offers these suggestions:

• Talk about it with everyone.
• Offer to take your neighbors' glass to a Citizen Collection Station.
• Watch for Environmental Services' how-to handouts. 
• Attend the Jan. 27 Ribbon Cutting (10 a.m. at 1034 Pendale).
• Tell your City Council Rep you appreciate glass recycling and want a pulverizer for your CCS.
• Thank District 7 (Eastside) Rep. Lily Limón for initiating the Pilot Program 
• Enjoy and take pride in a cleaner El Paso

Rep. Lily Limón will have two community meetings on Wednesday. They will be regular district meetings. However Romie Ruiz, the Partnerships & Public Programs Coordinator for the City of El Paso, will offer a special presentation on the glass pilot project at both. (1st Meeting – 7:30 AM – Denny’s – I-10 at Lomaland; 2nd Meeting – 5:30 PM – Carolina Rec Center – 563 N. Carolina Drive)

Start the Countdown to Recycling Glass in El Paso

Handling crushed glass. Picture from Las Cruces Sun-News

Get ready to recycle your glass bottles.

Mark your calendars for January 27th at 10 AM for the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new glass crusher at the Eastside Collection Station, 1034 Pendale. MAP

I wrote about the glass recycling pilot program in an earlier post. Representative Lily Limón championed the program. Laurence Gibson, Chairman of the El Paso Sierra Club Group also helped to bring glass recycling to El Paso. Under his leadership, glass recycling for the city has been a Sierra Club Group "Smart Goal". 

The glass will be finely crushed into a sand-like material which is non-abrasive, thus posing no risk of injury. It can be used for mulch in landscaping, sand decorations and as a replacement for gravel.

El Paso get ready to recycle your glass

District 7 City Council Representative, Lily Limón, has convinced the City Manager to try a pilot glass recycling program in El Paso. A glass crusher is scheduled for delivery to El Paso on Nov. 20th and will be ready to operate in January. As this is a pilot, the glass crusher will be available at one of the citizen drop-off stations, probably on the eastside nearest to Environmental Services. That way the pilot program can be monitored more easily. People can separate and drop off their glass items. After crushing, people can come and scoop out as much crushed glass as they might want. Limón envisions a glass crusher at each of the citizen collection stations throughout El Paso. A glass crusher costs just $23,000 and the one for the pilot program will be less. 

Picture from the Las Cruces Sun-News. Note that the woman is handling the crushed glass with her bare hand.

There is a larger program now in operation in Las Cruces. The glass is finely crushed into a sand-like material which is not abrasive and poses no risk of injury. According to Patrick Peck, the Director of the South Central Solid Waste Authority in Las Cruces, people use it in landscaping for mulch, sand decorations or to replace gravel. A story in the Las Cruces Sun-News reports that the "glass cullet can be used in landscaping and as pipe bedding, as well as being melted down and reformed into art pieces and even tile for mosaics. Cullet can also be used as an additive in concrete, pavement, and other building materials like insulation." 

Peck told me that the plant at first couldn't keep up with demand and now there is still a waiting list. Both the City of Las Cruces and Doña Ana County also have uses for the processed glass.

City Representative Limón is a retired teacher and principal. She has volunteered with a variety of groups, including the Sin Fronteras Organizing Project, UTEP Alumni Association, El Paso Commission for Women, Hispanic Leadership Institute and the United Way.


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