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Those empty wine and beer bottles? Huntsville trucks 20 tons a month to Strategic Materials in Atlanta to be converted into fiberglass, reflective materials and yet more bottles and jars. (Note: Don't put broken wine glasses, dishes, window glass or other kinds of non-food containers in the bins). Does it help the environment more than it hurts it to take it so far? You decide. (AL.com file/ stock.xchng)

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HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – Is it worth it to recycle your glass bottles and jars in Huntsville, Ala.? Here are the facts – you decide.

More than 20 tons of glass – mostly wine bottles – are trucked from Huntsville, Ala., to Strategic Materials in Atlanta. That's the largest glass recycler in North America. That glass is crushed and converted into fiberglass insulation, more food and beverage containers, reflective materials, and other products.

"It's a service that the city wants, so we provide it," said Rick Fabby, the district manager of Republic Services, the company contracted to run the Huntsville Recyclery and to pick up plastic, paper and cardboard from the city's blue curbside bins. "It's really a good idea – this is a good, recognized company, and they turn our glass into something that's available on the market."

The cost of getting the glass to Atlanta pretty much wipes out any income that Republic makes by selling the glass to the company, Fabby said. For some people interested in recycling for environmental reasons, the environmental costs of trucking it so far make glass a questionable item for recycling. For others, they can't bear to see more materials added to a landfill if they can be converted into something else.

That was then, this is now

In 2010, many avid recyclers were upset to discover that the glass they had so carefully taken to the recycling center and sorted into the bins by colors was just being taken to the landfill with the rest of the non-recyclable trash. That situation arose when one contract expired, and the company had been unable to locate a market for the glass.

But after that outcry, the city's Waste Management Authority worked with Allied, as the company was called then, to locate a new market for the glass.

Joy McKee, the cheerleader and organizer of Huntsville's recycling-encouraging Green Team – a department of the Landscape Management office that she directs – wonders herself if the carbon footprint created by people taking the glass to the Recyclery, which is about 3 miles west and a mile or so south of Johnson Road, and then the footprint created by trucking it to Atlanta, creates a net savings for the environment.

"I'd love to see everything recycled," McKee said Tuesday. "But I wonder if it's worth it. I'd rather see people make sure they recycle all of their plastics and that they get their chemicals and other household hazardous wastes recycled properly – the things that can truly hurt people."

McKee points to the additions to the city's recycling options. Those plastic bottle tops – which cannot be recycled with the No. 1 and No. 2 plastic bottles and jugs – can be taken to bins at all fire stations and at participating schools. Those are taken to Troy, Ala., the country's largest plastics recycler, and converted into paint buckets and other hard-plastic items. Plastic campaign signs are converted into car parts.

The Waste Management Authority has a way to recycle household chemicals – like pool chemicals and pesticides. Then there is the curbside pick-up for regular items like paper and cardboard. Twice a year, there is a collection of old medicine so it can be disposed of in a way that does not contaminate water or land.

"It's scattered, but that's why we have our Operation Green Team Facebook page," McKee said. "We are not in charge of any of these programs, but we try to let people know about them. Tell them to 'like' us on Facebook, and we'll let them know. I promote every program out there."