Glass An Infinitely Recyclable Choice

Prince William, VA, July 24, 2024 – Fact: Glass bottles, jugs, and jars are 100% recyclable and can be continually recycled without losing quality!  It is also becoming popular as the preferred choice for many beverages because of taste, health, and sustainability.

Summertime means all kinds of refreshing beverages in glass bottles that can be recycled. Residents can bring glass bottles, jugs, and jars to purple bins designated “glass only” recycling. In Prince William County, these “glass only” recycling bins are located at the Prince William County Landfill, Prince William County Compost Facility, Ferlazzo Building parking lot, James Long Regional Park, and the McCourt Administration Building parking lot near Greatbridge Road and Ricter Way just off Prince William Parkway.  Single-stream recycling trailers (blue) for paper, cardboard, and plastic bottles, jugs, and jars are also available at each of these Prince William County locations.

Glass bottles, jugs, and jars collected in the purple recycling bins in Prince William County are taken to a warehouse building at the county landfill and stockpiled.    Truckloads of 4-6,000 tons are picked up from the County by CAP Glass in Pennsylvania.  

With their advanced technology, CAP Glass, can clean the glass, remove labeling, separate the glass into color categories, size the glass to the desired diameter, and separate any plastic and metals. All sorting, cleaning, and crushing of glass is done by professionals manning modern, eco-friendly recycling machinery. Glass is then distributed throughout the Country using the rail systems and state-of-the-art truck fleet. (Excerpt from company website.)

There are also purple glass bins available in other locations in Northern Virginia.

Glass is no longer recycled curbside in Prince William County, and it should not be placed in curbside recycling bins or blue recycling trailers. Residents that do not want to use the purple glass recycling bins for bottles, jugs, and jars, should place glass items in the trash. Importantly, glass items such as mirrors, bulbs, windows, ceramics, etc., should not be placed in purple bins.  See the A to Z Disposal Guide for proper disposal of these items.

For more information on recycling or waste disposal in Prince William County visit www.pwcva.gov/trashandrecycling, or www.pwcva.gov/disposalguide.