BALTIMORE, Md. – Baltimore County has formed a partnership with CAP Glass, the glass recycling division of Carry All Products. CAP has been in the market for over thirty years, with lots of experience on how to recycle materials in an environmentally friendly way.
Under this new 10-year agreement, Baltimore county will deliver glass from the Cockeysville Material Recovery Facility (MRF) to the Cap Glass facility in Baltimore city. On the facility, CAP will be able to remove contaminants from the material and recover marketable glass, which will then be turned into new glass containers.
The news was announced earlier this year by the Baltimore County Department of Public Works. According to the news release from the Bureau of Solid Waste Management, the partnership with CAP will greatly expand the number of products and the volume of materials that the county will be able to recycle and return to the market. This process has already started; the first load of material was delivered to CAP glass on July 20th.
“This is an important initiative to expand the County’s current recycling efforts,” says Michael Beichler, the chief of the Bureau of Solid Waste Management. “We’re thankful to engage in this productive partnership with CAP Glass and are looking forward to working together for years to come.”
This new agreement didn’t happen overnight. It was the result of a multi-year search for a partner that would allow the county to make the most of its glass recyclables. Baltimore County had been handling this process internally up to 2013, but technical and financial limitations made continuing that process a challenge. So it can be said that this deal has been at least seven years in the making.
Many US counties and states have made recycling and other renewable solutions a priority, and for good reason. Having a robust recycling initiative does more than just help the environment. Being able to repurpose materials and send them back to market also generate revenue, and helps create jobs within a given state or county. Other benefits of recycling include the following:
1 – It reduces the amount of waste
Waste management costs money and takes up space. If this excess glass wasn’t being repurposed for the market, it would have been dumped somewhere, which is costly and generates new problems in the long-term.
2 – It makes the region more self-sufficient
By recycling old materials, Baltimore County can be less reliable on an influx of goods and materials from out of state, which helps keep wealth in the region. It’s important to note that while CAP Glass is originally from Pennsylvania, they have a recycling plant in Downtown Baltimore, which helps keep jobs and resources in the county.
3 – It protects the ecosystem
Investing in recycling helps protect the local ecosystem and wildlife, which are both also part of a region’s wealth. Since recycling glass is more efficient than making new one, this means fewer CO2 emissions need to be made for every recycled glass container that enters the market.
You can do your part for the recycling efforts in your area — be it in Baltimore or another region of Maryland — by keeping an eye on your local pick-up collection schedules.
