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AppenMedia.com/Sandy_Springs | Sandy Springs Crier | January 5, 2023 | 11 Glass recycling opens at Ocee Park

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — Residents have flocked to the glass recycling bin at Ocee Park, contributing to more than 20,000 pounds of collected glass since the site’s opening in early October.

This is no surprise to Johns Creek Assistant to the City Manager Olivia Ammons, who said many residents were frustrated because local waste haulers no longer accept glass curbside. Glass becomes a contaminant when it breaks inside of other materials, she said, which doesn’t make fiscal sense to haulers.

Off Buice Road, Johns Creek residents can get rid of their glass soda, beer, wine and liquor bottles, juice containers and drinking glasses. Glass can be any color, and labels can be attached. But residents should be sure to remove lids and rinse the glass before drop-off.

Items not accepted include CRT (TV) glass, light bulbs, porcelain, crystal, ceramics, candle glass, vases, Pyrex or other heat-resistant glass, windows doors or windshields, paper cardboard boxes and furniture glass.

Before October, Johns Creek resident Carole Madan, aka Momma Nature, had been taking her recyclables to other areas like Forsyth County. Ocee Park is the city’s first glass recycling site. Saving the natural world for 60 years, Madan takes three to four bags every week to Waste Management in addition to the glass she drops off once a month at Ocee.

“[Glass recycling in Johns Creek] raises the expectations that we will have access to good recycling,” Madan said. “Right now, there’s a lot of doubt with different waste management companies.”

While bin use is exclusive to Johns Creek residents, Ammons said the city may look the other way to deter others from tossing recyclable glass into the trash.

“We are always pro-saving the environment,” she said at the Nov. 28 Johns Creek City Council meeting.

Ammons wanted to make sure the city harnessed glass, a “low hanging fruit.” Glass can be recycled in perpetuity, without loss in quality or chemical structure, which makes it highly sustainable.

The Johns Creek City Council identified glass recycling as a secondary priority at its January 2021 retreat, allocating money toward the initiative in the Fiscal Year 2022 budget. Ammons brought the project to life, nailing down site logistics, with the help of Johns Creek Public Works Director Chris Haggard.

The effort is part of the city’s larger project to become a certified Green Community. Johns Creek recently received a New Leaf level certification from the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Green Communities program, which takes a minimum of 25 points and is given to previously uncertified communities.

Going from zero to 175 points at the Bronze level is like “jumping over a canyon when you just learned how to walk,” Ammons said. The ARC created the Leaf level to get cities started with some momentum.

To apply for and achieve Bronze by May 2024, she said staff is primarily working on documenting existing city initiatives, like the city’s community garden, the farmer’s market and some city ordinances and policies.

The main hurdle Ammons faced implementing recycling is figuring out a way to make it easy and accessible for people.

“When you’re able to integrate it into your everyday routine into your practices, it’s a shift in mindset,” she said.

Many people are skeptical about recycling and where the materials go, Ammons said. The glass at Ocee Park is collected by Strategic Materials, the country’s largest glass recycler, and taken to its facility in College Park to be sorted and processed for reuse.

Ammons said she understands the apprehension because a lot of materials don’t get recycled because they aren’t recycled property or because the infrastructure in the United States is “subpar at best” compared to Europe.

“Doing the best we can with what we have is paramount, right?” she asked. “Not only do we want people to recycle more, we want them to recycle properly because that will ensure that what you recycle is actually getting recycled and made into new material.”

CITY OF JOHNS CREEK/PROVIDED More than 20,000 pounds of glass has been collected since the recycling bin opened in early October. Pick-ups are monthly and average 10,000 pounds.

CAROLE MADAN/PROVIDED Johns Creek resident Carole Madan, aka Momma Nature, drops off glass recyclables. Ocee Park is the city’s first glass recycling site. Before October, Madan has been dropping glass off in other areas like Forsyth County.