Mt. Lebanon considers its glass recycling options
Residents are using drop-off facility
Mt. Lebanon officials are weighing their glass recycling options since residents now are prohibited from including glass with their curbside recycling.
Mt. Lebanon and other residents in the South Hills can drop off separated glass at Michael Brothers in Baldwin Borough free of charge.
Rudy Sukal, Mt. Lebanon’s public works director said Tuesday that as of Feb. 8, more than 70 Mt. Lebanon residents have dropped off glass at Michael Brothers.
“It seems like our residents are actually driving down there to drop glass off,” Mr. Sukal said. By comparison, he said Bethel Park has had 47 residents participate in the drop-off program.
Mt. Lebanon is awaiting a proposal from its hauler, Waste Management, regarding the cost of curbside glass recycling.
Additionally, there is an option of having quarterly glass drop-off sites rotating in four South Hills municipalities through the Pennsylvania Resources Council. The proposed sites would be in Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair, Bethel Park and Dormont and would cost the hosting municipality $750 per collection event.
“The idea was to start a pilot program,” said Mt. Lebanon assistant manager Ian McMeans of the quarterly drop-off.
Tentatively, the drop-off could run from March through June, he said. Each event would be open to residents of all four of the communities.
Mt. Lebanon manager Keith McGill said the dropoff is scheduled for the second Saturday in March. He said he has reached out to the school district for use of one of the high school’s parking lots for Mt. Lebanon’s drop-off site.
The municipality also has looked at the cost of in-house glass pick-up, which would cost around $835,000 to start.
Mr. Sukal said if the municipality would move forward with its own glass pickup, three trucks would have to be purchased and three employees would have to be hired.
He added that each truck would cost around $25,000 per year to maintain and that cost would rise as the trucks got older.
If Mt. Lebanon moves forward with in-house glass pick-up, the municipality would have to find a source to fund its cost, which could either be debt issuance or a tax increase.