Douglas County residents can recycle glass again
Written by Patrick Schneider on January 28, 2021
Story updated to add information on curbside pickup
ROSEBURG, Ore. – The Douglas County Board of Commissioners announced Douglas County Transfer Stations are allowing residents to recycle glass recyclables again after brief embargo ended the program in 2018.
Effective immediately, seven Douglas County Transfer Stations will be accepting glass items for recycling. Douglas County Public Works, Solid Waste Management Division have placed new specially designed glass recycling bins at Douglas County Transfer Stations located near Roseburg, Reedsport, Myrtle Creek, Oakland, Glide, Yoncalla and Canyonville for residents to recycle glass free of charge.
The return to glass recycling in Douglas County is the result of an ingenious idea developed, researched and implemented by the cooperative efforts of our Douglas County Public Works and Solid Waste Management team. The glass brought to Transfer Stations will be crushed and repurposed for leachate filtration, as an aggregate substitute and also as foundation support at the Douglas County Landfill.
In May of 2018, Douglas County, along with recycling partners, had to curtail recycling efforts due to the embargo China placed on recycling purchasing programs with the United States. As a reminder, we are still accepting tin and aluminum cans, scrap metal, oil and batteries for free. Since Solid Waste Management Division only has the capacity to pickup 3 items curbside, Solid Waste Management Division will continue to pickup plastic bottles instead of changing over to glass.
Douglas County officials, along with local and regional governments, waste disposal companies, processors and industry representatives say they plan to continue working together to find viable alternatives to the recycling issues facing not only Douglas County, but across the nation.
