Loudoun County government has launched a pilot glass recycling program at three of the county’s recycling drop-offs—just look for the pink bin.

Previously, glass was recycled along with everything else in Loudoun’s commingled, single-stream recycling, saving residents the need to sort their recyclables. But broken glass was contaminating other recyclables, driving up the cost of recycling or causing them to be thrown out.

Supervisors last year dedicated $218,000 to launch a pilot program to try collecting glass separately, and directed County Administrator Tim Hemstreet to include another $145,000 in this year’s budget. Other recyclables continue to be collected in the same containers.

The glass collected in the pilot program will be sent to Fairfax County to be used in construction projects, and may also be sent to other facilities that are able to recycle glass bottles into new products.

The three sites with the new bins are:

• Central Western Loudoun Recycling Center, 38159 Colonial Highway, Hamilton
• Landfill Recycling Center, 21101 Evergreen Mills Road, Leesburg
• Sterling Park Recycling Center, 400 W Laurel Avenue, Sterling

There are now new large bins at those sites—which the county refers to as purple, but which may in fact be pink or, one Loudoun Now reporter suggested, magenta—where glass bottles and jars can be placed.

At other sites, glass is still collected together with other recyclables. County officials expect the separate collection program for glass to expand to the county’s other recycling centers in the next several months.

Only glass bottles and jars are accepted. Glass bottles and jars must be empty and rinsed out. No lids or caps. Deposit bottles and jars loosely in the recycling containers provided, not in bags.

More information about recycling in Loudoun County is online at loudoun.gov/recycling.