Cold Lake, AB – Council debated the merits of creating a glass recycling program after questions from the public about its absence in the City of Cold Lake.

The City of Cold Lake removed glass from its list of recyclable materials in 2019, after regulatory changes made in the global recycling market led to higher processing costs for a number of materials, including glass. The increase in costs has eliminated the business case for glass recycling in many jurisdictions, and has led many municipalities to remove glass from their recycling streams.

At its August 8 Regular Meeting, Council decided to maintain the status quo and not pursue a glass recycling program after hearing that the majority of glass still collected by municipal glass-recycling programs is either stockpiled, or is simply sent to landfill. In some cases, the glass is crushed and used by municipalities, sometimes to mix with recycled concrete, or as ground cover in landfills. In Cold Lake, there is no business case for the material’s use, at this time, and the only other option would be to follow other municipalities that have chosen to stockpile the material in the hopes that a change in the recycling market or new technology would make its reuse viable.

“We can ask people to separate glass out of their household waste and we can collect it separately, but in the end, it will simply go to landfill or storage, and cost our taxpayers more money to achieve the same result,” Mayor Craig Copeland said. “Our waste management department closely monitors the global market for recycling and will bring recycling options to council for consideration where it makes sense. In this case, the regulatory framework in place has priced recycling glass out of the market for us.”

Administration also noted that participation in glass recycling was minimal when it was in place in Cold Lake. From 2017 to 2019, glass made up only 3.2 per cent of the recyclables collected by weight, resulting in only 0.5 per cent diversion of household waste from the landfill. It was also noted that the recycling processors in Alberta that accept glass as a material have very strict guidelines regarding contamination of the feedstock – this significantly increases the cost of collecting and sorting material for recycling destined for the market.

Prior analysis of the household and commercial waste streams in the City of Cold Lake noted several significant opportunities to divert material from the landfill, including expansion of the City’s organics program. In a separate agenda item, council voted to continue its discussion surrounding options for the City’s organics program at a future meeting.

- 30 -