City crush: New glass-recycling center opens in Lower Valley

If you’ve ever wondered what to do with empty glass bottles at your home, why not pulverize them?

The City of El Paso on Wednesday opened a glass-recycling center that pulverizes glass containers for use in garden landscaping and any other home beautification projects.

Currently on cannot put glass into the recycling bins that are picked up at homes.

Officials said the new glass recycling program will help to reduce glass litter in the community, will reduce waste headed into the landfill, and provides a valuable resource with a second life.

“We’re looking at going into all the bars and restaurants entertainment centers,” said Jesus Yamaguchi, the solid waste operations manager. “All that sector is a wide range that we can target and get a lot of glass.”

Residents can drop off empty glass bottles of all colors at the Pendale Citizen Collection Station at 1034 Pendale Dr.

“A lot of is used in landscaping. Technically here in El Paso what you see here desert landscape, so what you see is brush, mulch and wood chips. That’s what we use.” Yamaguchi said. “We’re trying to think outside the box and go out there. We can use it in landscaping and if we color code it, we can use some designs in your landscaping.”

The crushed glass is free and available to residents at the collection station, which is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. There is no limit on the amount of glass residents can take home.

“The beautiful thing is that it’s free. It’s free to bring it in. It’s free to pick it up.” City Rep. Lily Limon said. “We just need to do — as a city, as a community — go into the idea of recycling for the good of the community.”