Gwinnett County officials are getting help from Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division to open 10 new glass recycling sites across the county.
County commissioners voted on Tuesday afternoon to accept a $175,110 grant from the EPD to expand the county’s glass recycling program. Gwinnett will provide $135,000 as a local match for the grant.
The EPD’s funding is a Recycling, Waste Reduction and Diversion Grant available through the state’s Solid Waste Trust Fund Grant Program.
“With this grant, the county seeks to expand the glass recycling program to become an ongoing program that supports the Board of Commissioners’ Strategic Priority of Sustainability and Stewardship,” Gwinnett County Solid Waste Management and Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful officials wrote in the grant application last year.
“As additional drop-off locations are provided, it becomes more convenient for residents to recycle glass, and glass recycling is projected to increase, diverting tons of materials from landfills.”
Gwinnett’s glass recycling program was launched in 2021 as a pilot program and has since been expanded. The 10 new sites that the EPD grant will enable the county to open is expected to raise the amount of glass collected for recycling to at least 70 tons.
“More than 95 tons of glass were collected in the first 10 months of the program, and the county is seeking funding to expand the program to create countywide opportunities for glass recycling and to increase landfill diversion,” local officials wrote in the grant application.
On Tuesday, Gwinnett County Director of Support Services Angelia Parham told commissioners that more than 250 tons of glass has been collected at all sites since the program began.
“The sites have been very popular,” she said.
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