PORT ANGELES — Clallam and Jefferson counties are struggling with external market forces that have rendered them temporarily unable to recycle glass.
Sequim, which uses a different glass recycling processor than the rest of the North Olympic Peninsula, will continue to recycle the glass it collects at its two drop boxes.
Previously, most of the glass collected in the counties was shipped to Strategic Materials, a company that processes recycled glass and plastic. However, in mid-September, Strategic Materials stopped accepting glass from many of its customers due to the temporary closure of Ardagh Group, one of Strategic Materials’ biggest customers.
Ardagh Group, a packaging company that makes glass and metal containers, indefinitely closed its Seattle location in July, citing market conditions and low-priced imports from China, Chile and Mexico, according to the Seattle Times.
The Seattle Times also reported that Ardagh Group was caught in the consumer backlash against AB InBev, one of its largest customers, when a marketing campaign with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney sparked controversy and partial boycotts of Bud Light, an AB InBev brand. Ardagh said the controversy reduced demand for some of its product.
Three months later, the North Olympic Peninsula is experiencing the fallout of the Seattle Ardagh Group shutdown.
“It’s just a matter of supply and demand,” Jefferson County solid waste manager Al Cairns said. “If the demand goes down, then you can find yourself stranded.”
Jefferson County
Jefferson County is still accepting glass through its recycling program, although that glass is not being recycled, Cairns said. He is hesitant to stop accepting glass because he said it takes a long time for the public to adjust to revisions in the recycling program.
“I’d rather take a short-term loss than revise the whole program only to find a new emergent market,” he said.
When Strategic Materials notified the county of the situation, Cairns said he scrambled to find other places that would accept glass and was able to sell a few loads to a cement producer in Tacoma.
However, that company did not have the capacity to handle the influx of glass and began only accepting glass from pre-existing customers, Cairns said.
The county then switched to stockpiling the glass. However, Cairns said the county ran out of space in about two weeks after storing about 100 tons of glass.
“There is very limited holding capacity due to site constraints,” Cairns said. “And there’s nowhere else to store it.”
Once space ran out, Cairns said the county has been paying to have the glass sent to the landfill. If that continues until the beginning of next year, he predicted the county will spend between $20,000 and $22,000 in landfill disposal fees.
Cairns said he plans to talk to the Board of Jefferson County commissioners sometime in the next two weeks to get their opinion on the situation.
Clallam County
Clallam County does not have county-wide curbside glass recycling pickup.
Joey Deese, site manager for Waste Connections — Olympic Disposal, said residents in the western half of the county often take their glass to Port Angeles for recycling, while those on the eastern half take glass to Sequim.
However, Port Angeles stopped accepting glass at its two transfer facilities on Friday.
Previously, the city would collect the glass and then transport about 28 tons to Strategic Materials every five or six weeks, city public works and utilites director Scott Curtin said.
When Strategic Materials stopped collecting glass, the city stored the glass it received at its transfer facilities. However, Curtin said the storage space quickly filled up.
Now, the only options are to re-use the glass containers or throw them in the trash to be dumped into a landfill, according to a city press release.
Sequim appears to be the only municipality immune to the glass problem, as it does not work with Strategic Materials.
Instead, most of the glass recycled at the city’s two drop boxes is sorted by Olympic Disposal and then taken to Concrete Recyclers in Tumwater, where it is turned into landscape construction materials, according to city public works resource analyst Meggan Uecker.
Clallam County’s website currently recommends that people take clear, brown and green glass bottles to the collection boxes in Sequim.
Uecker said the city does not accept pyrex, window glass or decorative glass in its recycling program.
Working on a solution
The North Olympic Peninsula is not the only area facing this problem. Skagit County and Tacoma are no longer recycling glass, with more places expected to follow in the coming weeks.
The problem is that a large enough buyer does not exist nearby.
“There’s no market,” Cairns said.
The long-term solution is to find a new market or “expand on the market where it already exists,” he added. “But, until there’s a buyer, there’s nowhere to take it.”
In the meantime, a weekly roundtable headed by King County has been created, trying to identify ways to tackle the glass situation.
“Stay tuned,” Cairns said.
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Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.
