Comments At Arlington County Board Meeting, 4/25/19.
I oppose the County Manager’s recommendation to amend Chapter 10 of the County Code to enable it to ship residential waste glass to the waste-to-energy (WTE) incinerator in Alexandria on both economic and environmental grounds.
The County argues that it is compelled to stop recycling glass, because the cost of disposal has gone from $4.66 per ton to $16.31 per ton.
Yet according to civic activist Suzanne Sundburg, who cites the County’s own recycling website, that cost is dwarfed by the $43.16 per ton fee the County pays to haul its trash to the WTE facility in Alexandria.
So the move makes no economic sense. It also makes no environmental sense, since glass, which doesn’t burn, must ultimately be trucked to a landfill.
The move away from recycling glass isn’t necessary. Alexandria has established 4 waste-glass drop-off centers; this material will be sent from the drop-off centers to a Fairfax County processing facility to be recycled into gravel and sand that can be used locally.
If Alexandria, which co-owns the WTE plant, can find a way to recycle waste glass without inconveniencing its residents, Arlington can too.