[MissoulaGov] Recycling

[Pete Talbot]

I've been following the glass recycling issue for years.  Here's some info:

Believe it or not, you can recycle glass in Drummond and Phillipsburg -- 
I've been told it's crushed into aggregate.  Someone also mentioned 
Butte but I haven't been able confirm that.

Helena crushes glass but the folks there sort of frown on people from 
outside the county bringing their glass to Helena.

Bozeman used to take glass but quit doing it (the city basically just 
spread the ground glass around its dump site).

It's true what Bob Jaffe says about glass being the least desirable of 
all the things we recycle (in terms of resource availability, energy use 
and  toxicity).  Still, it seems like there should be a better plan than 
just dumping it in the landfill.

Ethel MacDonald has it right, of course; glass containers should have a 
deposit and should be reused.  The two bottle bills that went before 
Montana voters in the past were both defeated after massive anti-bottle 
bill campaigns were launched by the beverage industry.

Please continue to pursue and improve the recycling of glass, and other 
commodities, in Missoula.  Matt Hisel was spot on about the 
opportunities for small business, economic development opportunities, in 
the recycling arena.

Pete Talbot