OGDEN — In less than a month, Ogden will begin to offer glass recycling — a first for not only the city, but all of Weber County.

Beginning in July, the city will offer glass recycling to residents at three different sites throughout the city.

Large containers marked “glass recycling” will be at Bonneville Park, 360 Monroe Blvd.; the city’s green waste disposal site, 1845 Monroe Blvd.; and Ogden High School’s south parking lot, 2828 Harrison Blvd.

“Residents can drop off all types of glass at the bins, including brown, green and clear glass,” said Perry Huffaker, Ogden’s public ways and parks manager. “We also want to remind residents to keep glass out of their blue recycle bins at home. Those are to be used for plastic, aluminum and paper products only.”

Currently, Layton’s Wasatch Integrated Waste Management is the only glass-recycling facility in all of Weber, Davis, Morgan and Box Elder counties.

Ogden Councilwoman Caitlin Gochnour said the new recycling capability will help keep Ogden sustainable and vibrant.

“It’s a huge step forward for Ogden,” she said.

Momentum Recycling will maintain the bins and recycle all of the glass at its Salt Lake City facility. The post-consumer glass will be turned into high-quality raw material for a wide range of uses, including decorative tiles, fiberglass insulation, sandblasting, filtration systems and as a concrete additive.

Brad Mertz, executive director of the Recycling Coalition of Utah, said Ogden’s move to recycle glass is a good one and, he hopes, will be an example for other Top of Utah cities to follow.

“I think it’s a great thing,” Mertz said. “Glass is one of the easiest materials out there to recycle, but there aren’t a lot of facilities in Utah, because it’s usually expensive to process it and transport it. But recycling glass has a huge positive impact on the environment.”

According to the RCU, glass takes about a million years to fully degrade if it just sits in a landfill.

Glass never wears out and can be recycled forever. Recycling it takes only 30 percent of the energy required to produce it from raw materials.

One ton of recycled glass saves five gallons of oil, 1,330 pounds of sand and 7.5 pounds of air pollutants from being released.

Residents are urged to rinse out glass bottles, jars and containers.

Huffaker said the glass recycling bins should be in place by July 15.