McAllen officially unveils glass pulverizer

McALLEN — The city officially unveiled its new glass pulverizer Thursday, framing it as one of the many pieces in its effort to embrace new environmentally friendly programs and policies.

The city began collecting glass in early October and is looking to ramp up its operations now that partner cities Pharr, San Juan, Weslaco and Edinburg have been provided with collection containers at their respective drop-off centers. Those cities will divert their glass to the McAllen recycling center.

“This is really an exciting day for us,” McAllen City Commissioner John Ingram said. “Not only are we doing the right thing by recycling, but we’ll save quite a lot of money doing it.”

Carlos Sanchez, McAllen’s public works director, said the city expects to recycle about 6,000 tons of glass annually, which would save it about $101,000 by avoiding landfill tipping fees and using the crushed, sand-like material for city projects.

The pulverizer will break down the glass into sand, which it will use as bedding for road construction and storm sewer and water installations, Sanchez said. The city will also sell some of the sand to Innovative Block of South Texas, a La Feria company that produces and sells concrete blocks.

The city received a $59,000 grant from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for the pulverizer, and the City Commission put up the remaining $36,000 needed to purchase it.

“Today we celebrate adding another recycling program to our array of green initiatives,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez mentioned several initiatives that Mayor Richard Cortez and the city focused on during the annual state-of-the-city address last month aimed at reducing costs, attracting progressive companies and retaining the city’s educated youth.

The city’s “Save the Greens” compost program was recognized last year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Sanchez said. The city has collected more than 2,000 tons of green waste from local retail stores and schools to be turned into natural fertilizer through the program, which launched in 2007.

The city also hired an urban forester last year with a partial grant from TCEQ to take an inventory of the city’s trees and estimate their value to commercial and residential property, storm water mitigation and air quality, Sanchez said.

The city engineer’s office is also in the process of designing McAllen’s first building to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certification standards, he said. Awarded by the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council, the certification recognizes building designs that meet certain criteria related to energy-savings and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

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Nick Pipitone covers McAllen, PSJA, the Mid-Valley and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4446.