- Joined
- Jun 4, 2012
- Reaction score
- 633
At our environmental group's meeting last week, the subject of recycling "fraud" came up. I am using this expression because I do not know another term for it, nor have I seen it discussed elsewhere. The specific context was the recycling of glass in the Nashville area. One of our members contended that you, the citizen, might take your glass to a government or private recycling drop-off point, but that the glass is not taken to a glass processing facility from there but rather just goes to the landfill. So, you may think you are "recycling" the glass, but in fact it is not being recycled. Apparently, there is no glass processing facility anywhere near Nashville (nor does Tennessee nor any locality in Tennessee have a "bottle deposit" law). So it is naive to believe that the glass is really recycled rather than landfilled. (The nearest glass processing facility is believed to be in Atlanta, Georgia, the headquarters of the Coca-Cola Company--a driving distance of about 250 miles.)
Yet Metro-Nashville and many of the smaller cities in or near Nashville collect glass, allegedly for recycling.
Any thoughts on this? It seems crazy that local governments would collect glass allegedly for recycling and then just secretly just dump it in the landfill. But if that is the "cheap" way to handle the disposal, then maybe that is what is done.
Yet Metro-Nashville and many of the smaller cities in or near Nashville collect glass, allegedly for recycling.
Any thoughts on this? It seems crazy that local governments would collect glass allegedly for recycling and then just secretly just dump it in the landfill. But if that is the "cheap" way to handle the disposal, then maybe that is what is done.