NC glass facility to close. Here’s what that means for recycling in Raleigh & Wake Co.

A glass production facility in Wilson will close next month, but recycling in Raleigh, Durham and other Triangle towns will not change, local officials say.

Ardagh Glass Packaging — which receives recycled glass from Raleigh, Durham, Fuquay-Varina and other places across the Triangle — is closing facilities in Ruston, Louisiana, in addition to Wilson, WRAL first reported.

Wilson’s Ardagh location will close in mid-July, said spokesperson Gina Behrman. An estimated 400 employees work at the plant, according to Wilson Economic Development.

Individuals in the recycling industry say this closure will not impact recycling in the Triangle, and glass recycling can (and should) continue as normal.

“From our point of view, this shouldn’t impact anything,” Laura Hennemann of Strategic Materials told The News & Observer. “Just because there’s one closure at one North Carolina facility doesn’t mean there isn’t a strong recycling infrastructure in the state.”

Strategic Materials has a plant in Wilson, North Carolina, which is a middle step in the in-state recycling process. (More on that below.)

“We have existing customers in North Carolina that we will continue to sell to, and we can shift the materials that would have been sold to Ardagh Wilson. Plus, Ardagh has another facility in Henderson, and we will keep shipping to them,” she said.

What will happen to Raleigh, Durham recycling with the glass facility closing?

Recycling, both through curbside collections and convenience centers, will operate as normal in the Triangle.

“The closure shouldn’t have any effect on Wake County’s commingled recycling collection program,” said Bianca Howard, outreach and marketing supervisor for Wake County’s Environmental Services and Solid Waste.

Glass and plastic bottles are unique recyclable materials, as they are recycled and turned into brand new items right here within the state.

Here’s how glass recycling works in NC, as The N&O previously reported in an extensive recycling package earlier this year:

▪ Step 1: Sonoco, a recycling plant located in Raleigh, receives materials from all of the city’s residential bins, along with recycling from the city of Durham, Fuquay-Varina and some smaller community drop-off centers.

At Sonoco, industrial machines sort and distribute recyclable materials into their separate parts, and human sorters double-check the process. Glass is separated from other recyclable materials, like aluminum and newspapers.

“The glass collected at our solid waste facilities and sorted at waste management will continue to go to SMI’s facility in Wilson, where SMI has the opportunity to sell it into various markets around the USA,” Wake County’s Howard said.

▪ Step 2: Sonoco then ships glass to the Strategic Materials facility in Wilson (commonly known as SMI Wilson). Glass is extracted, cleaned, broken and sorted into shards that get sent off to become a new item.

▪ Step 3: Ardagh Glass Packaging is the final destination for many of these glass shards. Glass is melted down in an industrial furnace and molded into new items, like jars and bottles.

Without Ardagh’s Wilson location, SMI Wilson will ship their glass elsewhere, including to Ardagh’s Henderson location.

“Residents shouldn’t do anything different, and they shouldn’t worry that glass isn’t being recycled,” said Wendy Worley, chief of NC’s Department of Environmental Quality’s Recycling and Materials Management Section.

“The commodity itself is just getting shifted to other markets and they will be the new beneficiaries of it, unfortunately for Ardagh.”

Ardagh, which also has metal production facilities, has three locations in North Carolina, according to the corporate website. Facilities in Wilson and Henderson produce glass, while a facility in Winston-Salem produces metal.

You can read The N&O’s full collection of recycling stories and engage with our interactive recycling resources at newsobserver.com/recycling.

Ardagh Wilson’s statement on the facility closure

Here’s the company’s full statement, provided by Ardagh spokesperson Behrman:

“Ardagh Glass Packaging – North America (AGP – North America) continues to focus on enhancing our overall performance as a leading supplier of glass packaging to the food and beverage industries.

“Our multi-year performance optimization program, involving targeted investments in enhanced capacity and ongoing cost optimization, underpins our ability to continue to provide existing and prospective customers with high quality, American-made sustainable glass packaging.

“Pursuant to this program and in response to recent weakness in market demand, we have today announced certain adjustments to our manufacturing footprint involving the closure of our Ruston (Simsboro), La., and Wilson, N.C. glass production facilities, effective mid-July 2023. Existing customers of these facilities will continue to be supplied from alternative locations in our network.”

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