West Bountiful administrators were approached by Momentum Recycling in November of 2020 concerning their desire to provide glass recycling to residents. The company currently serves approximately 700 commercial and 10,000 residential customers and is looking to add additional customers along the I-15 corridor. City code at the time prohibited private collection of garbage, including items for recycling. During the February 16, 2021 city council meeting, the ordinance change was approved with a unanimous vote of the council members.

Residents of the city will soon receive information from Momentum Recycling concerning the curbside collection of glass. This service is being offered to residents of single-family dwellings and is not available at this time for multiple-unit developments or commercial users.  Interested residents will subscribe to it, as well as pay for the service separately from the regular fees paid to the city for waste disposal and recycling.  The company will provide 35-gallon bins as part of the agreement. Interested residents will sign up via the company’s website. The monthly fee will be $8 with an initial fee of $25. 

Momentum Recycling, LLC is the only glass recycling company in the state of Utah, providing glass recycling to Utah as well as surrounding states. A family-owned company located near the Salt Lake Airport, Momentum began as a recycling hauler and soon realized that the demand for glass recycling collection was growing beyond the capability of the companies providing the service. As a product that is endlessly recyclable, the collected glass is broken down, crushed, cleaned, color separated, pulverized into smaller pieces and then sold to fiberglass and sandblasting companies.

Council member James Ahlstrom voiced strong support for changing the ordinance, stating that it does not make sense for the city to have an ordinance that stands in the way of something that makes good sense.  He also voiced his intent to be one of the first people to sign up for the service.  

According to greenbiz.com, recycling just one glass bottle saves enough energy to power a 100-watt bulb for four hours.  As of 2015, only 26% of all glass was recycled in spite of its endless ability to be recycled without losing the integrity of the product.  Several obstacles make it difficult to successfully collect and recycle glass.  Among those is the need for separate collection containers to prevent contamination of the glass which renders it unrecyclable. Glass is also heavier than other recyclable items which need to be collected and transported.  These obstacles are eliminated by the service provided by Momentum.

Momentum Recycling will be required to obtain a business license from the city as well as enter into an agreement whereby the city could terminate services if needed.  The company reported that they have similar termination agreements with other clients.  A start date for these services has yet to be determined.