The Glass Recycling Program received an upgrade thanks to Oscar Ferrufino, Grounds Heavy Equipment Operator, Chris Thorpe, Zone 6 Electrical Supervisor, and Derek Borzi, Electrician, Zone 6! Oscar, Chris, and Derek proposed the installation of small solar panels to trickle charge rechargeable batteries on the Purple Trailers. The batteries power the Purple Trailers' hoist, allowing them to safely dump their contents at Fairfax County’s I-66 Transfer Station when they're full of recyclable glass bottles and jars! After the trailers are dumped, a glass recycling partner collects the glass and crushes it into small pieces. The pieces are cleaned and sorted to produce glass cullet. The glass cullet is transported to regional manufacturing facilities and reused to produce recycled glass containers! Before this creative idea, the batteries on the Purple Trailers wouldn't have an adequate charge to power their hoist to safely dump the recyclable glass. Now, all of the glass bottles and jars are safely dumped, and then they're recycled! The solar panels were ordered and installed on the Purple Trailers by Chris and Derek.
The Glass Recycling Program is an impactful collaboration between Facilities Services' Recycling and Waste and University Sustainability's Zero Waste Program advancing George Mason University towards its Zero Waste Mason goal of 90%+ diversion away from the trash