We have fielded several inquiries on this and would like to provide some clarification.

Parkfairfax’s trash and recycling is removed by a private hauler, not the city nor county.  Our trash goes directly to the Covanta Waste to Energy facility located in Lorton, where it is burned and used to heat water to make super-heated steam which then turns a turbine to create electricity, roughly for about 1 million homes annually.

Our recycling goes to the Waste Management Merryfield facility located in Fairfax. Recently with the slump in the recycling market they no longer will accept glass and if we continue to send it their way it is separated, and we will be charged additional fees by weight.  From there is simply goes directly to a landfill.

Alexandria which is still collecting glass and send theirs to the Fairfax County facility where they have equipment which grinds and processes it.  Some may be used to mix in with asphalt and some may just end up in a landfill as a separation layer.  As Parkfairfax is a private community this option is not available to us. However, residents can drop their glass of at the “purple dumpster” per the city link.

Based on this our trash contractor, Capitol Services is having us place the glass into the regular daily trash pick up which will be sent on to Covanta for burn conversion to energy, and not end up in the landfill.

Parkfairfax Management