The US’s Glass Packaging Institute (GPI) has opposed a recycling bill related to glass sold in New Jersey.
Its opposition is based on what is not included in the bill which it said omits any provision to improve glass recycling in the US state.
GPI President Scott DeFife (pictured) said: “Glass recycling has highly regionalised markets, and while bottle bill glass from neighbouring states can travel longer distances to processing plants, simply requiring glass sold in New Jersey to have certain recycled content levels will not improve glass recycling in the state, nor will it increase available amounts of recycled glass in New Jersey.
“Bottles made on the West Coast, Midwest, or globally will not use New Jersey curbside glass to make their bottles.
“Several New England states and New York have bottle bills that supply the glass plants throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region with clean material.
“Do not confuse industry opposition to this bill with opposition to using recycled content.
"The glass container industry desires more recycled content. GPI released a roadmap in 2021 on how to improve domestic glass recycling and offered an array of other policy changes to improve the situation in New Jersey.
"We strongly disagree with the proponents’ claims that this policy will fix New Jersey glass recycling. It will not.
"What should have been included in the New Jersey bill are: policy changes that would put performance standards on facilities that process curbside recyclables because high residual contamination and poor quality make much of the state’s MRF (material recovery facility) glass unusable; additional support for infrastructure to create cleaner streams of glass if the MRFs are unable or unwilling to reduce contamination, and restrictions to keep New Jersey glass bottles and jars out of landfills.
"Without these policies, the legislation will not improve glass recycling in New Jersey.”
