The City of Oxford is one of many towns whose recycling program does not include glass due to lack of funds and available machinery.
“We don’t recycle glass because of the cost,” Oxford Superintendent of Sanitation Amberlyn Liles said. “Everything else recycled in Oxford is able to be sold, but not glass. There’s no value in glass. That’s why we encourage people to buy plastic or aluminum…because we do recycle those things in this area.”
The people of Slackers Supply, a local business, are doing their part to reuse and repurpose glass waste.
“One of my first jobs when I moved to Oxford was a liquor store, and I noticed the volume of glass bottles being sold,” Slackers Supply co-owner Tom Edwards said. “Here at Slackers, we decided to turn them into glass smoking devices…instead of them going in the trash, we can now turn them into a useable, functional device.”
Slackers Supply is a head shop (a store dedicated to selling tobacco pipes and smoking pieces) in Oxford. Co-owners Edwards and James Funk have come up with an incentive for residents and students to save their liquor bottles from going to the landfill. Customers who bring in 16 glass liquor bottles receive a water pipe repurposed from one of the bottles. Customers can also get one for free if he or she allows one of the employees to pepper spray them on camera. They use the videos for advertising purposes. These pipes are available at the store for $35.
For Oxford residents who wish to recycle their glass waste, one of the closest options is driving the glass to Memphis, Tennessee. Even there, it is only possible to recycle clear, brown or green glass bottles. They also must be cleaned. Junior Peyton Thomas makes the drive once a month with any glass bottles he collects from his friends or from day-to-day use.
“I just felt weird throwing it all away,” Thomas said. “I use a lot of products that come in glass bottles, and it seemed so wasteful to let them end up in a landfill when they could be used for something better.”
Majority of Oxford residents that recycle do so through the curbside recycling program or local drop-off locations.
“The process of recycling glass can be very complicated, and the machinery can be very expensive,” Kendall McDonald, Ole Miss Office of Sustainability spokesperson, said. “In Oxford, recyclables are sorted by hand, so recycling glass can be a safety issue as well.”
There have been several petitions over the past few years appealing to city officials to acquire the equipment needed, but none of them have amounted to anything. Slackers Supply remains the only business in Oxford to officially recycle glass.
