November 2009 will see the start of an innovative venture intended to push residents of Kansas City to recycle glass containers, during which they will be able to drop off their jars and bottles at on…
November 2009 will see the start of an innovative venture intended to push residents of Kansas City to recycle glass containers, during which they will be able to drop off their jars and bottles at one of 60 locations. The used glass containers will then be collected and transported to a new facility in Kansas City to be sorted and crushed, and then on to the Owens Corning plant in Kansas City, to be melted and spun into fiberglass insulation. Ripple Glass LLC, which is supporting the recycling effort, hopes the effort will considerably increase the amount of glass recycled. In fact, at present, residents recycle only 5% of their glass beverage and food containers, compared to 28.1% nationally. We want to make Kansas City a model, Jeff Krum, a Ripple Glass principal, said on 14 October. We have the lowest recycling rate of any metro in the country now for glass, and we think over time we can completely turn that around and make this a leader in the nation. The effort will start on 2 November 2009, and has required participation from public and private landowners, the Mid-America Regional Council, Deffenbaugh Industries and Owens Corning. It has financing from Boulevard Brewing Co., developer Adam Jones, DST Systems and UMB Bank. As per the new plan, 95% of residents will be within a five-minute drive of a big, purple Ripple Glass recycling bin, which will not require sorting. The recycling bins will be positioned at existing municipal drop-off locations, shopping centres, supermarkets and major employers. Our goal is to not only make it convenient, but allow people to make it part of their routine so it“s not an extra trip, Krum said. The area generates about 80,000 tons of potentially recyclable glass, but with 95% dumped in landfills All the recycling bins are expected to be in place by 15 November and all the participating property owners have agreed to maintain the areas around their bins. The USD 4.5 million processing facility, which will be able to produce 5 tons of cullet per hour and can be expanded to more than 15 tons per hour, will be developed by Ripple Glass, which has already purchased optical scanning equipment from Austria and screening machinery from a local company. On opening, the new company will have about 6 employees, but employment is expected to grow significantly when the venture take off. The public sector wasn“t doing it and we were crazy enough on the private sector that we thought we“d give it a go, Krum said.