A few years ago, Omaha decided to stop taking recycled glass as part of the normal reycling pickup. I think this was done to make it easier for the workers, so they didn’t have to separate the items out – and could just throw everything in the truck.

Typically, I’ll have visitors from Iowa take my bottles back and get $ for them. After Thanksgiving, however, I have an extraordinarily large collection of beer and wine bottles sitting in my mud room.

So I’m going to venture out today to one of the drop off locations and see how easy it is to recycle glass here.

A couple links from the city indicate the location and types of glass that can be recycled.

Drop Off Locations

Acceptable Glass

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I went to the location on 78th and Cass – next to the Hy-Vee. They have a bunch of green metal bins. You just find the ones for glass – they were the last ones in the line. Then they have bins for the color of glass – clear, green and dark. Just put the bottles in the right bins. Pretty cake.

Updated – March 22, 2009

I made the journey to cass this afternoon only to find all of the recycling bins full. I noticed around the full bins that other people had left boxes full of glass. I’m not sure if that is “legal”, but you might want to take your glass in boxes in case the bins are full. At least then you don’t have to pack them back into the car and take them home or to one of the other locations.

I ended up taking mine to the 103rd & I location. Same deal there – green bins with recepticals for different colors of glass. I did have to ask myself – as I drove all over the city – whether I was really doing any good by recycling the glass and whether it would have been better for me not to waste the time/gas/emissions.

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Updated July, 2009

Ok, this is a bit late, but the 78th and Cass recycling location has been removed. I heard that Hy-Vee wasn’t enjoying all of the glass in the parking lot.

Since the last time, I made a trip town to south 60th street. I’m not sure it’s closer than the 103rd Street location… I suppose the 44th & Izard location is a bit closer.

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Update – April 11, 2010

I hauled a bunch of glass out to the 103rd & I location today and noticed that they aren’t making people separate the glass anymore. I don’t know if that is the case across all locations or if this change is isolated to just this location.