The City of Greensboro hasn’t tried having trucks with loudspeakers on top blasting out the message: “Don’t put glass in your brown recycling bin.” The city also hasn’t tried skywriting, but it may in the future because the city continues working to get the message out that glass does not belong in the brown recycling bins.

It can be confusing because the city lists glass as something the city recycles, and it does – but not in the residential recycling bin. However, not everyone reads the fine print. And some people are convinced that if they put a bottle or a jar in their recycling bin the city will secretly recycle it. But the city won’t. That bottle or jar will simply make a more expensive trip to the landfill than if it had been placed in the green residential garbage bin.

But recycling glass is becoming easier for residents of Greensboro. Another glass recycling drop off location, Leonard Recreation Center at 6324 Ballinger Road, has been added to the list. This is the ninth glass drop-off location opened. The other eight are:

  • Fire Station 19, 6900 Downwind Road
  • First Presbyterian Church, 108 W. Fisher Ave.
  • Glenn McNairy Library, 4860 Lake Jeanette Road
  • Kathleen Clay Edwards Library, 1420 Price Park Dr.
  • McGirt-Horton Library, 2501 Phillips Ave.
  • Medford Service Center, 401 Patton Ave.
  • Solid Waste Transfer Station, 6310 Burnt Poplar Road
  • White Street Landfill, 2503 White St.

These sites are easy to use. You simply dump your glass bottles and jars into one of the blue glass recycling bins and you’re on your way. Only the glass should go in the bin, not whatever container you are using to transport the glass.

The city combines this glass with the glass collected from bars and restaurants and transports it to a business in North Carolina that recycles it into new glass bottles and jars.