Glass Recycling Success on Cape Cod, MA

Did you know that the Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA) partners with the Town of Dennis, MA to help Cape Cod communities recycle their glass locally?  Six Cape Cod communities participate in NRRA's processed glass aggregate program, where glass bottles and jars get crushed into an aggregate to be used locally in infrastructure projects.  NRRA's vendor recently completed a crush of glass in Dennis, MA, and the crushed glass will be used in local projects.  

Established in the summer of 2019, NRRA's processed glass aggregate host site in Dennis, MA now serves the towns of Barnstable, Brewster, Wellfleet, Mashpee, and Harwich, MA.  These communities deliver glass bottles and jars collected from their residents to the Town of Dennis, MA transfer station.  There, glass is collected until at least 1,000 tons of material is available on site.  Then NRRA's vendor brings a mobile glass crushing unit and screening plant to crush the material into an aggregate 3/8 of an inch or smaller.  

The Town of Dennis, MA has developed a relationship with a local private contractor that has used the processed glass aggregate from prior crushes for a sewer pipe bedding project in Orleans, MA, another Cape community, and for construction at a new school in Dennis, MA.  By participating in this local program, NRRA member communities on Cape Cod reduce their cost of glass recycling and reduce the need to transport virgin aggregate materials from off the Cape, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions. 

NRRA is proud to partner with these Cape Cod communities to recycle their glass for local use.  Learn more about NRRA's glass recycling programs by exploring our glass recycling StoryMap.