Recycling center in Birmingham accepting glass again after forming partnership with Waste Pro

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama --After almost a month without glass recycling, Birmingham-area residents finally have a place to take bottles where they won't end up in a landfill.

The Alabama Environmental Council on Monday announced it had begun accepting glass at its downtown recycling center again after finding a new partner -- Waste Pro -- to ship the recyclables away.

In May, the center had an issue after its partner that took the glass away, Calera-based cement company Argos, said it would no longer be able to take glass because of falling demand for cement. For nearly a month, there was virtually nowhere in the metro area to drop off any significant amount of glass.

"We were the only site you could drop off in Jefferson County," AEC Executive Director Michael Churchman said in May.

Now, thanks to Waste Pro, the recycling center at 25th Street and 2nd Avenue North is taking glass again.

"It has been very disappointing for us to have to tell people they couldn't drop off their glass, but have been searching for another recycling opportunity," Churchman said in a news release Monday. "Since this is one of the only places to recycle glass in our area, we have been working to find another outlet and are extremely pleased that Waste Pro has stepped up to help be a leading recycler in central Alabama."

Waste Pro is providing a roll-off container for glass and will ship the glass to customers in Georgia and around the Southeast, according to the release. In the long term, the AEC and Waste Pro plan to start pulverizing the glass on their own, making it easier to sell to local and regional industries.

"We have equipment and regional partners that can accept glass, so we reached out and developed a plan with AEC to be able to begin recycling glass again," George Nicholson of Waste Pro said.