Savannah’s curbside recycling program, which began seven years ago, has always accepted paper, plastics, metals and glass. It still does, but for the last five months that glass hasn’t been recycled at all.
Instead, an estimated 1.1 million pounds of glass from Savannah’s curbside program has been in landfills since August.
“Commodity prices today are at record lows,” said Shawn State, a spokesman for Pratt Recycling. “Glass has historically cost money to recycle, but with the recycling commodity markets today, the cost to recycle is exceeding the cost to landfill. Therefore, in today’s markets, glass is being landfilled.