Fairfax County Glass Recycling Program Updates

The board has received the following information from Braddock District Supervisor John Cook’s office. Please see the details below, and thanks for your cooperation! 

Glass is no longer part of the regular recycling program. Fairfax County recently partnered with neighboring jurisdictions — Arlington County, Prince William County, and the City of Alexandria — to tackle this challenge regionally. The regional program, which was launched in early 2019, established glass-only drop-off containers at various sites across all four municipalities.

For branding purposes and ease of recognition by the public, the partners agreed to paint their glass containers purple (drawing the nickname “Purple Can Club”). Throughout the participating jurisdictions, all colors of emptied glass bottles and jars are acceptable at the purple drop-off containers. In this way, residents who bring their glass recyclables to a purple-can location can be sure that their glass will be recycled into other useful products.

The county also continues to accept glass as part of its curbside program. This is in recognition that several regional material recovery facilities (recycling plants) are working to improve their sorting processes, to better separate glass from the other collected materials, and potentially allow curbside glass to also be recycled.

Currently, there are only two purple drop-off locations in Fairfax County, which are not convenient for many residents. The strategy is to continue growing the Purple Can Club program by finding good, glass-only, drop-off container locations that are convenient throughout the county where illegal dumping can be curtailed. As the program grows, the SWMP will routinely evaluate its effectiveness to help make an informed decision on the future of curbside glass recycling.

Residents and businesses in Fairfax County are encouraged to bring glass to purple drop-off containers at the 1-66 transfer station and the 1-95 landfill complex. More information can also be found via Fairfax County’s Glass Recycling Overview.


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