Many Decatur residents have been wondering whether Decatur will still be recycling glass in the future, after a recent AJC report noted many recyclers servicing metro Atlanta municipalities are shipping glass to landfills instead of recycling it.

Why?  Because it’s gotten expensive to sort out and recycle glass.

Well, it looks like the AJC followed up with Asst. City Manager David Junger who said that the city’s current contract with Latham Home Sanitation includes the recycling of glass.  That contract runs through June.

After that, Decatur’s commissioners are likely gonna have to make some tough decisions.  If glass recycling remains financially unsustainable, here’s the list of options that Mr. Junger provided…

• Stop recycling glass
• Have Latham collect glass separately
• Have the city collect glass separately
• Set up drop off locations in the city for glass recycling

As we have written about before, the recycling game is much more complex than our giant blue bins suggest.  And the big bin itself has been linked to part of the problem, as the size and convenience of the big bin leads to lazier recycling on our part.  Combine that with the complexity of separating the wide variety of items at recycling centers and you’ve got yourself a system that feels easy, but isn’t when it comes to the dollars and cents that drive the industry.