Camarillo’s Art Goulet contacted me about a recent article of mine about putting lids on plastic bottles during recycling, placing lids on steel containers, and disposing of aseptic packaging and juices depending on where they are placed. box. As he pointed out, I did not provide answers about the lids of glass bottles and jars.

"The simple answer we tell people is," said Scott DeFife, director of the Glass Packaging Research Institute, "just put the lid on."

Although a longer explanation and the full complexity of the inspection situation may provide different answers depending on whether the lid is plastic or metal, De Fife clarified, “We find it’s best to keep simple recycling instructions. We don’t want people to talk about recycling rules. Get frustrated and don't do it. So the message is,'Close all the lids; we (the glass industry) will deal with it.'"

Although ordinary citizens may need a simple message, readers of this column usually look for deeper stories, so here it is.

For the metal cap on the glass bottle, DeFife's national information is consistent with the local situation in Ventura County. When recycling glass bottles, the metal cap should remain connected.

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The strategic material is Vernon’s glass beneficiation facility, which cleans glass from two sorting centers in Ventura County, which uses magnets to remove ferrous metals, and eddy currents to remove aluminum from broken glass (broken glass). According to Julian Garcia, manager of the Strategic Materials Factory, not only can these items be easily removed from the broken glass, but the collected metal is also valuable and will be recycled.

However, Garcia said the separation method for plastic caps is not very effective and does not produce recyclable by-products. To remove the plastic cover on the broken glass, Strategic Materials uses a vacuum cleaner. The vacuum cleaners of Strategic Materials suck out plastic fragments from broken glass, sometimes missing some plastic fragments.

The clean hybrid glass produced by Strategic Materials is still suitable for melting in the recycling furnaces of Owens-Illinois in Vernon or Verallia in Madeira. These factories may filter out more pollutants. The pollution control equipment of these glass recyclers is controlled. Discharge, but one of the purposes of recycling is to avoid pollution, so it is best not to use plastic caps.

Unscrewing the plastic cap from the glass bottle and throwing the plastic cap into the trash can may feel wasteful, but there is no benefit in sending the plastic to the glass recycling bin. The mixed plastic taken out of the glass has a negative value and is mixed with small glass fragments, so it cannot be recycled.

This is in contrast to plastic caps on plastic bottles; plastic caps on plastic bottles will eventually be sent to a plastic recycling plant, so they are usually recycled.

For glass recycling, it is more important not to use heat-resistant glass, ceramics, leaded glass, light bulbs and other non-recyclable glass. These belong to your garbage truck, unless of course the bulbs are fluorescent lights, in which case they should be placed at the designated collection point.

The melting temperature of other types of glass is different from the glass used to make bottles and jars. Garcia said that if glass manufacturing companies make bottles from molten mixtures of various glass types, they will need to clean up the mess. Injection of pressurized liquid into a weak glass container will cause the container to break on the filling line.

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Glass recycling is important because glass manufacturers reduce furnace temperatures when they use recycled glass instead of limestone and sand to make glass. This reduced energy consumption can save resources and reduce air pollution.

In addition, according to a 2011 report by the Container Recycling Institute, recycling 1,000 tons of glass created 8.3 jobs, while using raw materials to make 1,000 tons of glass created less than one job.

Recycling glass bottles and glass jars is very important. Simple recycling information may be helpful to ordinary people, but it is best not to use plastic caps and other types of glass to avoid pollution.

The contact information of Ventura County Public Works Analyst David Goldstein is 805-658-4312 or david.goldstein@ventura.org