Maryville, Tennessee (WATE) — Blount County is now one of the few places in Tennessee where you can recycle glass.
Glass recycling is a new addition to the recycling options available in Blount County. As recycling began to grow in the county, leaders began to hear about the need for places to recycle glass. According to Jeff Hedrick, who oversees recycling operations in Blount County, they discovered that glass recycling by-products could be used for highway projects.
Earlier this year, a GP-1HD Andela Glass Pulverizer in Upstate New York was delivered to the Blount County Operations Center so that glass recycling can begin. This machine can process 10 tons of glass per hour. The by-product produced varies in size as the crusher can produce fine sand up to 3/8 inch glass gravel with rounded edges.
The public is invited to celebrate the new options Ribbon cutting at 10:00 a.m. on November 17 Brant County Operations Center (1227 MacArthur Road, Maryville, Tennessee).
For those who want to recycle the glass, there is no need to separate the glass by color or remove the labels. Labels and waste are separated as the machine processes the glass through a rotating Trammel screen.
According to Blount County, the 3/8-inch glass gravel by-product is used in highway projects as a complement to “a mixed design of aggregate, shoulder stones, cold mix, pipe bedding, and underlay for walking trails.” increase. A finer sanded material is tested for use in road winter treatments and to improve the reflectivity of road stripes. Polished products will also be used for routing, landscaping, sandblasting, playgrounds and golf course sand traps.
The newly opened facility is already making a name for itself in Tennessee. According to Blount County, it has received awards from the East Tennessee Development District and the Tennessee County Highway Officials Association.
