Akron, Ohio, Glass Recycling Ban Based on Misinformation

The city of Akron, Ohio, recently announced it would no longer accept glass in residential recycling bins.

City officials claimed the removal of glass from the list of appropriate recyclable trash came in response to information obtained from Waste Management Ohio, which allegedly said the market for recycled glass had disappeared. According to a Cleveland.com report, that wasn’t the case.

According to the report, Akron’s deputy public service director and the executive director of ReWorks, which oversees recycling in Summit County, said the glass ban was necessary because Waste Management could no longer find a buyer for recycled glass—a claim that Waste Management says was false.

Cleveland.com has more details:

The city’s service department announced last week that it would no longer accept glass in recycling bins, attributing the change to Waste Management Ohio, whose market for recycled glass had reportedly disappeared.

That came as news to Waste Management officials.

“We continue to accept and process glass in recyclables, and we have a market for recycled glass,” said Kathy Trent, senior public affairs manager for Waste Management Ohio.

Read the full article here.