TIMES RECORD • August 31, 2020
Brunswick will stop accepting glass in recycling Sept. 14 in a temporary measure while officials grapple with a crumbling recycling market and mounting costs. Brunswick was one of the first Maine towns to initiate a recycling program, Town Manager John Eldridge said, but with the current “dire” economic conditions, he could not ignore the potential in savings. In the past year, residents in the curbside collection program recycled almost 1,200 tons of material, 135 tons of which were glass containers. Due to “unfavorable market conditions” glass that is sent by the town for recycling is currently being used as a sand substitute, and as daily cover at landfills, rather than as a raw material for new glass products.