WAYNE TOWNSHIP -- Folks in Clinton County hoping to recycle glass bottles in the new year will have to travel out of the county to do it. A landfill near Mcelhattan says recycling glass has become too costly, so it's decided the best option is to stop.
About 800 tons of trash come through the Wayne Township landfill every day.
To help lengthen the life of this dump, the center near Mcelhattan also recycles what it can here at the site.
"You see plastic box buckets, Styrofoam bags,” said Mike Crist.
Also included in the mix is broken glass. The environmental manager at the Wayne Township Landfill tells Newswatch 16 that recycling glass has become more costly than just throwing it away.
"And we've made a decision moving forward to eliminate that from our program due to its high operational cost and low value," said Crist.
Starting next month, the center will no longer recycle glass bottles. Instead they'll end up in the landfill.
All of this glass might look like a lot of waste to the regular person, but to the landfill this is just 2 percent of its daily collection. In the big picture it has a very small effect on the landfill.
"We're encouraging folks if they don't want to throw it in their trash take it to Lycoming County or take it to Centre County," said Crist.
Come 2016, the Hangar 9 Restaurant and Lounge on Bellefonte Avenue in Lock Haven will be throwing plenty more bottles in the trash.
"We pay for our recycling now and we're not going to be paying for that anymore so that will probably be added to the tipping fee for our dumpster,” said Steve Gundy.
"Now all of a sudden they've changed their mind because it's going to cost them some money now instead we're going to pay that to our garbage so I'm not happy with it," said Betty Packer.
The Wayne Township landfill in Clinton County landfill will continue to recycle other products but will stop recycling glass January 1.