Do you find yourself asking if scrubbing a glass jar that was once full of almond butter so that it's suitable for the blue bin is worth your time?

It turns out it might not be.

A report from the City of Saskatoon says approximately 90 per cent of glass bottles and jars people toss into their recycling bins are broken by the time they get sorted.



That means the vast majority of that glass ends up in the landfill.

It's the same story in the Queen City.

A City of Regina spokesperson said that the "co-mingled collection process" means that the paper, plastic, metal and glass tossed is separated at the processing facility.

Of the material, five per cent is glass, representing 550 tonnes of glass each year. Less than 10 per cent of that glass collected is recovered, meaning that it is prepared to be sold to end markets.

"Breakage occurs at many points in the collection and processing system," reads a statement from the city. "It may begin with broken glass containers being disposed in recycling carts at the household, containers being broken during the collection and transportation from households to the processing facility, as well as broken during the sorting process at the facility."

What to do with glass

Joanne Fedyk, executive director of the Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council, said she is not surprised by the low recovery rate of glass considering everything goes into the same bin.

Fedyk said people should be aiming to reuse their glass.

Jars can be used to sort and store dry goods like flour, beans and nuts.

Fedyk suggests that people buy food products in bulk and store them in leftover glass jars as a way of reusing them. (Joanne Bayly/CBC)

Stores like Bulk Barn let you fill your own containers with these items.

If you have glass with a deposit — like bottles — you can take them to SARCAN where they can be taken for recycling. The cities of Saskatoon and Regina have also been discussing the possibility of partnering with SARCAN as an alternate collection depot for household glass.

Giving more glass to SARCAN

Some city officials in Saskatoon say glass should be banned from the curbside program.

In Saskatoon, Loraas's contract to provide curbside, single family home recycling bins expires on December 31, 2019. Whether glass will be taken out of the equation has not been finalized. The city could spend upwards of $33,400 a year to partner with SARCAN to get more depots across the city

Fedyk says she is not overly concerned with the impact of glass, as it does not create pollutants in landfills. (CBC News)

Fedyk is onboard with the SARCAN partnership.

She said separate, curbside glass collection is much more expensive, so she doesn't see it as a strong possibility in the province. It's not something the Waste Reduction Council is campaigning for either.

"Glass isn't a big part of the overall consumer waste stream. It's maybe five per cent and it's sort of getting to be less and less as manufacturers choose other lighter products to package their stuff in," she said.

Because it's mostly made from sand, glass is chemically inactive in landfills, so it doesn't create pollutants.

"It does have a fairly low environmental impact. It's main impact is that it's heavy and takes up some space," Fedyk said.

Fedyk said the Waste Reduction Council, along with a number of municipalities in the province, is more focused on the effects of organic food and yard waste. She said most of it can be diverted with composting done locally.

"It's half of the waste stream and in a landfill it produces methane, which is a nasty greenhouse gas," Fedyk said. "So that's a much greater impact than something like glass."