Greensboro announced a new glass recycling collection location today – the Glenn McNairy Library at 4860 Lake Jeanette Road.

On July 1, the City of Greensboro stopped recycling glass in its residential recycling program, which means that glass put in the brown residential recycling bins is separated out at the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF, pronounced murf) and transported to the landfill.

However, the city started collecting glass from residents at glass recycling drop-off locations and, according to Greensboro Waste Reduction Supervisor Tori Carle, the recycling drop-off locations have been a big success.

One of the goals of the new glass recycling program was to have at least one glass drop-off location in each of the five City Council districts; and with the Glenn McNairy Library location in District 3, that goal has been reached.  Carle said that the city would be looking at other city facilities for additional locations.

According to Carle, the Kathleen Clay Edwards Library at 1420 Price Park Dr. has been so successful that the city has to empty the containers at least once and sometimes twice a day.  Carle said they hoped the McNairy drop-off location would take some of the pressure of the Edwards Library.

There have been reports that since glass was taken out of the residential recycling stream, the amount of contamination at the MRF had increased.

Carle said that the amount of contamination hadn’t gone up or down noticeably and was still in the 20 percent range.  But she added that the number was from the recycling processor, “So we accept that number with a grain of salt.”

Carle said that is one reason the city is going to have a third party audit the MRF, and, “Then we’ll have a better idea of what people are recycling and what our true contamination rate is.”