Some good news for Erie county residents, who were bummed when Erie county did away with glass recycling.

Glass recycling is about to be back!

A new company, Bayfront Glass, announced it's opening a glass-only bottle and jar collection and processing location, on East 12th street, in Erie.

They say they came up with the idea, after seeing a report on Erie News Now, about the elimination of glass items from Erie County recycling programs.

It comes after most of Erie county got rid of curb-side glass recycling this year, because waste haulers phased out glass, “We've been recycling glass for years, and it is definitely a recyclable product, we just need to make sure we collect it in the right way and process it in the right way, and that's what we're hoping this Bayfront Glass is able to do for us,” said Brittany Prischak, Erie County’s Sustainability Coordinator.

In August 2019, residents will be able to drop off their glass at the Bayfront Glass facility near 12th and East avenue, in the city of Erie.

In the fall, the option of dropping off glass at pop-up collection sites in your municipality will become available. Bayfront Glass will schedule the pop-up events two weeks in advance, with the dates, times and locations posted on the Bayfront Glass website, which is still being built.

And for many Erie county residents, this new business comes as welcome news, “I think it's (recycling glass) absolutely necessary, most of the products that are available, if you can't find it in plastic, you have to get the glass, and it's a shame that we haven't been able to recycle it, so I'm glad,” said Fairview resident Rebecca Grimaldi.

Shortly after Erie county got rid of glass recycling, students at Edinboro University conducted a survey. More than 1,000 Erie county residents responded, and a majority said they’d be willing to travel 10-19 minutes to drop off their glass recyclables.

Now that this option will become a reality, will residents save their glass and drive to a location near them, or the facility to recycle it?
Grimaldi says yes, “I would be willing to drive it to a location, if it's located in the area that I live in, sure, I would definitely do it.”

And Prischak believes that will be the case for many people in Erie county, as she heard a lot of feedback from disappointed residents when they were forced to end curb-side recycling.