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Fargo reuses collected glass as filtration layer in inert landfill cells
Summary
City staff say glass was removed from curbside recycling because it damaged sorting equipment; source-separated glass is collected at drop sites and stored at the inert site to be used as a filtration layer in future inert cell construction.
Fargo city staff said the city removed glass from its all-in-one curbside recycling stream after processors reported broken glass damaged sorting operations. Instead, the city now accepts source-separated glass at drop sites and collects it at the landfill's inert site for future reuse as filtration material in inert cells.
"A couple years ago we decided to remove glass from the all-in-one recycling," a Solid Waste Department staff member said, explaining the decision followed processor feedback that broken glass hindered automated sorting. The department collects source-separated glass with its own trucks, stores it at the inert site and retains it for use as a filter media when constructing new inert cells.
What an inert cell is: staff described an inert cell as a portion of the landfill dedicated to non-organic construction materials—lumber, shingles and other non-plant materials—that does not require a synthetic liner and is generally cheaper to construct. "We will save [glass] for when we construct a new inert cell and we'll use it as a filtration layer above the liner," Dustin Hosnney, landfill supervisor, said.
Closure technique and materials: staff described using a clay-based cap for some closed cells (evapotranspiration closure) instead of synthetic liners where appropriate, installing roughly 4 to 4.5 feet of compacted clay with seeded topsoil to cap closed areas; after vegetation establishes, the department expands well fields and continues gas collection from adjacent cells.
Why this matters: Reusing glass as a filtration layer reduces the volume sent to disposal, diverts material from markets that cannot accept contaminated glass and provides a locally managed engineering benefit for cell construction. The department emphasized residents should continue to source-separate glass and consult the city's recycling map and coordinator for drop-site locations.
What remains unclear: staff named an on-the-ground processor and described procedures, but detailed engineering specifications and regulatory approvals for using recycled glass in impervious or filtration layers were not provided during the episode.
The department did not announce new drop-site locations in the recording; residents were directed to the city's recycling web map for current sites and guidance.
