Stay sharp for safety’s sake when disposing of broken glass
If you’ve just watched a glass slip out of your hands and crash to the floor, you’ve got a clean-up emergency on your hands. Broken glass is dangerous to handle and tricky to dispose of—you have to do it carefully to avoid injuries.
Learn how to clean up and dispose of broken glass without risking cuts or other mishaps.
If you throw broken glass pieces in the trash without proper precautions, you risk splitting the trash bag open, cutting yourself on sharp shards, and injuring waste collection workers. Following a few straightforward steps to protect yourself and others will ensure you dispose of broken glass safely.
Before you get started, protect yourself from cuts and other risks that broken glass poses. Wear thick work gloves, eye protection, and closed-toe shoes with a thick sole. These precautions may seem like overkill, but even tiny shards of glass can cut you. It’s always best to avoid a trip to the emergency room for stitches.
Before you touch any glass, prepare a container to put the broken glass in. Line an empty cardboard box that’s big enough to hold all the broken glass, plus an old towel or cloth with a sturdy trash bag. This will help prevent shards from falling out of the box’s seams or poking through the cardboard.
Working carefully, collect all the pieces of glass you can immediately see. The safest way to avoid cuts is to use a broom and dustpan to collect the glass—just remember to thoroughly and safely clean them when you’re done to ensure no glass remains in the bristles. If you don’t have a dustpan, a piece of cardboard or thick paper will do the trick.
Place an old towel or other cloth on the floor and empty the dustpan onto the cloth. This will act as another layer of protection to prevent injury or loose glass during the disposal process.
Shattered glass can travel farther than you might think, so you’ll need to inspect the entire area—even into other rooms—for any shards that you might have missed. Shine a flashlight at floor level—the light will reflect off of any remaining glass. Remember to check underneath and behind furniture and fixtures. Use your broom and dustpan to collect errant glass shards and empty the dustpan onto the towel or cloth.
Once all the visible glass is picked up, wrap the towel or cloth securely around the glass. For extra security, use packing tape to keep the towel from falling open. Place the towel inside your prepared box.
Close the box and seal it securely with packing tape. Use a thick marker to write “Caution: Broken Glass” on the top and each of the sides. This will alert sanitation workers so they can exercise precautions if they handle the box.
Even after every shard of glass is picked up, fine dust-like particles of glass can remain. Run damp paper towels or an old damp cloth you don’t mind throwing out over the entire area to pick up these particles, and throw the paper towels or cloth away when you’re done. Don’t reuse anything you’ve used to pick up glass particles—tiny pieces of glass can remain in the cloth’s fibers even after washing. Vacuum the area thoroughly after the floor is dry.
Broken glass that’s wrapped in cloth can’t be recycled, so you’ll need to put the box out for regular trash collection. In most cases, you can put the box in your trash bin, but check with your local garbage removal service to find out if they have a special procedure for disposing of broken glass.
Cleaning up and disposing of broken household glass can be stressful and tedious, but it’s not often a job for the pros. However, if you have a large amount of broken glass, like large broken windows or doors or glass embedded in upholstered furniture, floors, or walls, a disaster or emergency cleaning service may be able to help.
If you have other items to dispose of in addition to broken glass, you can hire a junk removal service to haul away unwanted and broken items. Junk removal costs depend on the size of the load, but expect to pay an average of $250.
When glass shatters, larger shards quickly drop to the ground, but smaller particles can go on an airborne journey up to 15 feet from the point of impact. So check under furniture, along the edges of rugs, and in dark corners for glass fragments. When in doubt, vacuum the entire room a few times after thoroughly cleaning.
Broken glass cannot usually be recycled. Most recycling programs state that glass must be intact in the form of bottles or jars in order to be recycled. You may be able to recycle broken glass at a drop-off recycling facility—contact the facility to see if they accept broken glass.
Never put glass in the garbage disposal. It can damage your disposal or eject shards of glass out of the disposal and cause injury. If you get broken glass in your garbage disposal, turn it off and cut the power from the breaker, use a tool like pliers or tongs to remove the glass, and use a wet-dry vacuum to remove the remaining glass pieces. If you can’t access the disposal safely, call a garbage disposal repair pro.
