Follow
The Alaska Railroad sewer extension project now underway is using 500 tons of 100% Recycled Glass Aggregate (RGA) as the bedding material for 1,100 feet of pipe on Railroad Avenue. 500 tons represents 40 percent of the glass bottles and jars recycled by Anchorage residents this past year.
The Alaska Railroad, Anchorage Water and Waste Water Utility, HDR (engineers,) CEI (contractor,) and Central Recycling Services have all worked in tandem to make it happen. Glass aggregate is fully tested, meets the current specs for bedding material, compacts well and is easy to work with. Using 100% glass aggregate in a significant project such as this is a boon to glass recycling because it uses a large volume making processing, storage and marketing less costly and more sustainable.
Since the 1990s, ALPAR has taken the lead to foster glass recycling for Anchorage through public and private partnerships that work to make it feasible. It has never been easy since recycling glass has high costs and low volumes not to mention it’s difficult to handle and move. And, when all is said and done, recycled glass is a replacement for sand or other virgin aggregate which is relatively low cost and readily available.
ALPAR’s goal is help insure that most if not all major categories of everyday packaging materials such as glass containers can be recycled economically. Central Recycling Services, a construction and demolition debris recycler, stepped up to the plate in 2011 to take on this material and make it into a usable and salable product. Hats off to them for meeting the challenge and to everyone who are helping close this recycling loop. A word to contractors: please buy Alaska-made Recycled Glass Aggregate for your next project!