How to recycle glass in Salt Lake City

The Salt Lake City curbside glass recycling program is offered through Momentum Recycling, available for $8/month and billed with the rest of your city utilities. If you don’t have access to curbside pickup, or don’t want to pay for this service, deposit your glass at the nearest Salt Lake City glass recycling drop off location. There are many scattered in parking lots across the Salt Lake valley.

Glass must be collected separately from the rest of your mixed recycling. Shards of glass can contaminate other products, making them difficult to recycle. Recyclers pay less for commodities like paper if it was collected along with glass, which is not beneficial for the collecting municipalities and companies.

Even if you don’t partake of wine or beer, you probably use a lot more glass bottles than you think…pickle jars, jams, salsa, condiments, beauty products. And pickup is only monthly, so you have time to accumulate enough to make it worth signing up, or at least collect in a bin to drop off at your convenience.

What is accepted in the glass recycling bin?

Empty glass bottles and jars of all colors from beverages, condiments, jarred foods, oil & vinegar, spices, sauces, vases, drinking glasses & cups, and beauty products. Broken glass is ok.

• Remove corks, caps, and lids and recycle separately as able.
• You do not need to wash or even rinse the glass, nor do you need to remove the labels.
• Keep bottles and jars loose in the can—do not bag.

What should not be added to the glass recycling bin?

• Ceramics, including dishes. Donate if in good condition. I haven’t been able to find a recycling option for ceramics or pottery.
• Windshields. Check with companies like Safelite about their recycling programs.
• Pyrex. This glass has been treated to withstand very high temperatures so it cannot be recycled with regular glass. I emailed the company and they don’t offer a recycling service and suggested contacting local municipality and retailers. However, I haven’t been able to find anything, locally or mail-in.
• Light bulbs. Bulbs contain other materials (some hazardous) that should not be mixed with glass.
• Windows or other large pieces of glass. Momentum offers free recycling for windows and other large glass pieces, like shower doors.
• Fish tanks/Aquariums. Donate or sell on KSL or a hobbyist group like the Wasatch Marine Aquarium Society (WMAS). Or try one of these upcycling ideas. I haven’t found any recycling options.
• Mirrors. The glass has a reflective coating on the back which makes mirrors not recyclable.

What happens to the glass?

Collected glass is delivered to Salt Lake City’s Momentum Recycling facility, the only glass recycling operation in the state. Here it is processed to make new glass or sold to Owens Corning in Nephi, who uses the material to make home insulation. The production of recycled glass uses 35% less energy than making glass from raw materials, in turn producing less greenhouse gases. Glass can also be recycled indefinitely, making it one of the most sustainable materials if it is recycled. Otherwise it is not biodegradable and can last for thousands of years. Below is a super cool video highlighting the recycling process at Momentum’s facility.

Find ideas to reuse glass items here.