It might seem logical that a state known for its bottled beers would be a leader in glass recycling. But that isn鈥檛 the case in Colorado.
Momentum Recycling, which opened last month near Broomfield, hopes to change that.
Momentum plans to harvest glass bound for area landfills聽and process it for the state鈥檚 gigantic bottlemakers, said president and CEO John Lair.
Most of the glass Front Range residents toss into their recycling bins currently is trucked from their homes to recycling facilities and then to landfills, where it serves as a sort of heavy blanket atop trash heaps.
Despite increases in efforts to prompt residents and businesses to recycle, Colorado ranks among the lowest 20 states for diverting trash toward other uses, reports show.
Momentum鈥檚 $11 million plant converts what was once bound for the dump into furnace-ready crushed glass known as cullet.聽The cullet will be delivered to Owens-Illinois鈥� bottlemaking plant in Windsor, about 20 miles down the road from the Budweiser brewery and partners with MillerCoors at Rocky Mountain Bottle Co. in Wheat Ridge. The two plants make more than 2 billion bottles a year, and a steady stream of top-grade cullet could cut their energy costs significantly.
For every 10 percent increase in recycled glass flowing into Owens-Illinois bottle plants, the company sees a 3 percent reduction in energy use, officials have said.
Momentum鈥檚 bottle-to-bottle recycling plant will process up to 80,000 tons of glass each year.
About 15 percent of the most finely ground glass 鈥� which isn鈥檛 good for bottlemakers 鈥� will be sent to secondary markets for use in abrasives, large water filters and concrete coatings, Lair said.
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