The pick-up of glass materials by Ripple Glass Company, which happened last week from the McDonough County glass recycling bunker, has kept more than 18 tons of glass out of the landfill since the recycling bin, located in the southwest corner of the Macomb Farm King parking lot, was opened in June 2025.
According to Macomb Club member and Sustainability Chair JoAnn Hairston-Jones, since September 2025, they've collected over 38,000 pounds of glass. Each full bin, which is emptied into the bunker on Tower Road when full, is 12,000 pounds, or six tons.
'And we are about a week or two away for our fourth empty, which will bring us to 24 tons, or 48,000 pounds,' Hairston-Jones added.
When the bunker is full, Ripple Glass out of St. Charles, MO picks up the glass and hauls to its Chicago facility, where it's recycled into fiberglass insulation, new bottles, countertops and more. The bin in the Farm King lot holds six tons of glass, or around 12,000 pounds of bottles and jars (which saves about 2.4 million watts of energy per full bin). Waste Management of Macomb picks up the purple bin every two to three months and hauls the recyclable glass materials to a storage bunker on Tower Road.
Two grants totaling $53,000 (38K from Fellheimer Trust and $15 K from the Glass Recycling Foundation) funded the start-up costs, which included Laverdiere Construction installing the concrete pad and 'bunker' on Tower Road to store glass items collected in Macomb for pick-up by Ripple Glass Recycling and the special glass-only purple bin for residents to drop off their glass recyclables.
Ripple Glass also provided start-up 'Slim Jim' containers to area bar and restaurants and other establishments to participate in the glass recycling efforts. Funding from a McDonough County Power Cooperative grant allows the Woman's Club to purchase additional 'Slim Jims' for participating businesses. To date, Chick's on the Square, J & B Windmill Tap in Industry, the Macomb Elks Lodge #1009, the Old Dairy, The Wine Sellers and VFW Post #1921, Buffalo Wild Wings, Fraternal Order of the Eagles, Los Charros (East) and Gelsosomos are taking part in the initiative. Other community establishments who have jumped on board include Colchester Library, Gold Hill Golf Course, Good Hope Elementary School and WIU Residence Halls (Corbin/Olson).
To keep the program running efficiently, Hairston-Jones stressed that light bulbs of any type are not to be placed in the bin, and no bags of any kind (paper or plastic) should be tossed in the bins. In addition, ceramic-based products are not among the accepted glass items, nor are window frames (which were in the last bin). Users are also reminded to close the bin doors after depositing their glassware.
'Thank you to the McDonough County community for being good stewards of the environment by utilizing the glass recycling opportunity,' she said. 'We are appreciative to all of the community partners that have made this project a reality!'
For more information on the Macomb Womans Club and their various initiatives, visit macombwomansclub-gfwc. weebly.com. For more information about Ripple Glass and its recycling efforts, visit rippleglass.com.
