Glass Recycling Center

So how does turning glass back into sand help make Union County a better place to live both environmentally and economically? Just a five-minute drive from downtown Blairsville the Union County Transfer Station is a recycling center like no other in the area.

With the addition of several new state-of-the-art pieces of recycling technology the center is able to turn what could be a huge financial liability to taxpayers into a major asset for the residents of Union County and it all starts with the glass recycler.

We've got a glass bin that we store the glass in and then whenever we get a load or two we put it in the hopper it goes up the conveyor belt and goes into the pulverizer which crunches it up and then it goes into the trommel which cleans all the edges off and so it don't have no sharp edges and then all the trash and everything, anything plastic, metal, anything other than glass goes out the back.

What started as broken glass is then turned into two extremely useful products. Two different ones: one sand and one's like a pea gravel. You can use it for base and roads, use it for actually playgrounds, golf courses. I mean you can use it for about anything you use sand for. Pea gravel you can use it anything you put mulch or pea gravel for. You can put it walkways, you can put it in flower gardens.

Creating our own supply of sand and pea gravel saves the taxpayers quite a lot of money every year. Good for the road departments. They don't have to go out and buy sand for the roads for the salt. In fact this recycler keeps an estimated 40 tons of glass out of landfills each month.

The glass recycler is just one of many pieces of equipment we were able to use SPLOST money for. We've also acquired a baler to help recycle boxes and a baler for plastic, both of which bring in revenue that helps operate the facility.