Glass recycling firm shatters idea that it can't be done in a rural market

DECATUR - Because glass is heavy and takes more fuel to transport, recycling it usually doesn't pay in rural areas.

But CPR Enterprises I LLC near Decatur is making it work despite a sluggish economy, thanks to the persistence of its partners and the startup assistance they obtained.

"The amount of glass we're diverting from landfills is going up steadily," said Royce Berry, one of the partners. "We processed 138 tons the first quarter and were up to 220 tons the most recent quarter."

Luis Perez, recycling coordinator for the Macon County Environmental Management Department, got the ball rolling two years ago when he ran into Connie Kraft, who previously worked in the recycling industry but had partnered in 2007 with Berry and her sister Penny to start CPR and sell white rock.

With CPR located near PPG Industries at 4135 Turpin Road, the former site of Kraft Trucking operated by Connie and Penny's late father for 40 years, Perez asked Connie Kraft if she'd ever considered recycling glass.

The trio quickly decided it might be a good fit and took a business plan to Al Luchetti, then director of the former Illinois Small Business Development Center at the University of Illinois Extension office in Decatur.

"I have to give them a great deal of credit for working extremely hard to get this done," Luchetti said. "When their first offer to buy their product fell through because of the economy, they went out and found other buyers."

Berry said they currently have a handful of regular customers for their rough crushed glass, or cullet, and all of them manufacture glass bottles and jars.

Commitments from buyers are what caused the Illinois Department of Economic Opportunity to award the project $150,000, Macon County Environmental Management to award $10,000 and the former Regional Entrepreneurship Network of Millikin University to award $5,000.

InDecatur Ventures and the Springfield-based Illinois Ventures for Community Action also made investments, Berry said.

The money paid for a glass crusher and other glass recycling equipment, allowing CPR to begin recycling glass a year ago.

David Ross, manager of recycling and waste reduction for the department of economic opportunity, said he is excited about the project, in part, because it is so unusual to have a glass recycler located so far away from a metro area.

"Citizens want to recycle, and there is a lot of demand to recycle glass," he said.

CPR gets its glass two ways - from the 100 65-gallon totes it keeps at any given time in cooperating bars and restaurants in Decatur and Springfield and from a drop-off bin provided by Environmental Management and kept at 4135 Turpin Road.

The business also has placed a pair of totes next to Environmental Management's recycling trailers in Elwin and Long Creek and is considering doing so at other locations.

CPR asks that glass be washed out, lids removed and that it be sorted by color (blue, green, yellow, brown and clear). The business cannot accept ceramic dishware, clay garden pots, laboratory glass, heat-resistant ovenware, vases, crystal glassware, window glass, stained glass, automobile glass or mirrors.

In addition to cullet, the business makes glass sand and aggregate that can be used in road and building construction and glass sand and mulch for landscaping. "Green and blue are the popular colors," Penny Kraft said.

Berry said glass can be recycled endlessly. It takes less energy to make containers from recycled glass than from raw materials and that glass is superior to plastic as a food and beverage container.

"Glass recycling is a win-win for everyone," he said.