On Saturday, March 14, Ravalli County Recycling (RCR) will be holding its first event of 2026 at the North parking lot at Ravalli County Fairgrounds in Hamilton. Gates open at 10 a.m. through 1 p.m. Donations will be collected to cover the costs of getting your glass and batteries to sites elsewhere in the U.S. to be processed and recycled.
At the last event, held in October of 2025, volunteers collected 7400 lbs. of glass. Ravalli County Recycling partners with Recycling Works MT, who owns and operates the equipment that collects the glass and hauls it to their site in Missoula. Recycling Works also holds glass drop off events in Missoula and Seeley Lake throughout the year.
Recycling Works partners with glass processing plants in other states who re-purpose used glass into insulation and other products. A laser system is used to sort glass by color. Different colors are used for different products. RCR is picky about making sure that they only accept glass products (as opposed to Pyrex for example), because they don’t want to contaminate the load with products that cannot be recycled by the processing plants. They also reject broken glass, because they need to ensure that it is safe for volunteers to handle when they move it from your vehicles to the collection bins.
Ravalli County Recycling has grown and adapted to change to stay relevant and proactive throughout its history. Currently they hold three glass and battery recycling events a year, in March, June and October. Always in conjunction with C2C Cardboard Recycling who continues cardboard collection at the Ravalli County Fairgrounds on the second Saturday of the month.
Last October RCR also collected over 100 lbs. of dead batteries that would otherwise have been buried in landfill. Batteries are carefully packed into special boxes to be shipped to The Battery Network, which breaks them down and extracts raw material that can then be reused to create new products. RCR collects donations to cover the price of the safe handling and shipping costs.
You can find more information about the non-profit organization, and where to recycle other materials at the website: ravallirecycling.org.
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