Vancouver Lodge Gets Glass Recycling Rolling Among Area Bars/Restaurants
The Heathman Lodge, a 192-room hotel in Vancouver, WA near the Columbia River Gorge and Mt. Hood National Forest, is on a sustainability mission, and that includes glass container recycling. For the past two years, glass bottles and jars are recycled at an onsite restaurant, all banquet services, and throughout the public areas.
Four yards of recycled mixed glass is collected for recycling each week. According to Scott Gix, The Heathman Lodge Sustainability Director, the biggest obstacle to glass recycling is that it takes a fair amount of space, but it has proven to make a big dent in diversion from the trash bin. In addition to glass, The Heathman Lodge recycles mixed paper, food composting, clean plastics, Compact Florescent bulbs, and batteries.
“We were actually the first business in Clark County to start a pilot program for businesses to recycle glass,” says Gix. The initial motivation was to reduce trash fees and expand overall hotel recycling, but in the beginning the lodge wasn’t able to find a local recycler to pick up the glass bottles, “so for the first few months of the program, we drove the glass bottles to a local recycling transfer station,” says Gix.
With some persistence, they were able to persuade their hauler, Waste Connections, to justify a glass collection route for area bars and restaurants and they began to pick up their recycled glass among other businesses. “The glass recycling program has been well received by our guests and is a sense of pride for our staff. It fits our culture of being pioneers and setting a good example for others to follow,” says Gix.
At their Hudson’s Bar & Grill, which serves wine, beer, sodas, water, and teas in glass bottles, mixed glass is collected in “back of house” separated in well-marked containers. At the banquet and bar areas, glass bottles are separated at the point of service and placed in plastic milk crates and then moved to 96-gallon wheeled bins.
The recycled glass is taken to a Waste Connections transfer station and then on to the Owen Brockway plant in Portland, Or for use in making new bottles. Some lower quality glass from the transfer station is also crushed and used for road construction.
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About the institute
The Glass Packaging Institute (GPI) is the trade association representing the North American glass container industry. Through GPI, glass container manufacturers speak with one voice to advocate industry standards, promote sound environmental policies and educate packaging professionals. GPI member companies manufacture glass containers for food, beverage, cosmetic and many other products. GPI also has associate members that represent a broad range of suppliers and closure manufacturers.
