Since the Ark shattered Laramie’s glass recycling program, proper glass disposal has become nonexistent.
At the Laramie Glass Recycling Forum in November, Ark Recycling Services coordinator Bill Vance, said Ark used to collect roughly 19 tons of glass a month from the Laramie community to be freighted to Denver.
This service simply cost Ark too much money and so the glass recycling was halted for the time being.
With the end of glass recycling, many students have been reaching out to find another way to recycle their glass products.
“When we announced in October 2013 that we would be discontinuing our glass recycling program, we stated that our recycling program had experienced significant financial losses in Fiscal Year 2013,” wrote CEO and President of Ark, Shirley Pratt on the Ark website.
It is estimated Ark was losing $10,000 to $15,000 a year by providing glass recycling to Laramie residents.
There have been many ideas proposed by the community to find an alternative solution to glass recycling, including reusing crushed glass in concrete and asphalt, shipping a critical mass of glass once or twice per year by rail bunker, and increasing fees and taxes for residents.
UW is currently negotiating a contract with Colorado-based company Waste-Not Recycling.
“The university took it upon themselves to look at alternative solutions once it became clear Ark was no longer going to provide glass recycling,” said the Sustainability Club president, Seth Cude.
He said, “It was encouraging to see them take initiative and seek out Waste-Not.”
Waste-Not Recycling specializes in resource recovery and materials management.
“We continue to explore new manufacturing opportunities for materials that have led to new product opportunities for items that are normally viewed as being un-recyclable,” stated Waste Not on its website.
Cude said he is hoping the city will follow the school’s determination in finding a glass recycling solution.
While there are chances the city could follow suit, UW environmental justice students are not waiting to find out.
The UW faculty is getting into the act by leading by example. Political science professor Dr. Teena Gabrielson’s environmental justice class is using literature like Iris Marion Young’s Responsibility for Justice to put political theory into action.
Gabrielson’s class is also working to find a solution to Albany County’s glass recycling problem in a variety of ways. They are contacting local companies around Laramie in an attempt to calculate the total amount of glass used in the city and researching and drafting documents and reports along with attempting to gather support from influential members of Albany County.
The class is also gathering student support through the collection of signatures. These signatures could help to pass a proposed ASUW resolution to officially show the Laramie City Council the vast student support for glass recycling.
More information about what the class is doing as well as a student and faculty petition to show student body support can be found on the Bring Back Glass Recycling to Laramie Facebook page.
