FAYETTEVILLE -- For about six months, restaurants and bars that serve alcohol have been required to recycle their glass and cans. It’s been a change for many of those establishments.

At the start of this year, the state began requiring the recycling effort. Sean Barnard of Blue Moon Café says it’s been a good change as it has eliminated a problem the restaurant used to have. “We don’t have a problem with excess trash being on the ground because we have extra cans that were provided for us,” he said.

Restaurants and bars aren’t the only places to see changes because of the law. Recycling centers have seen them as well. Each one of the 20-yard containers at one Fayetteville center can hold between 4-5 tons of glass. Recycling officials say that before the law changed, they were filing up about 1-2 of those containers per month. Now, they say they are filling up the same amount every week.

Donald Tew with Cumberland County Solid Waste says he’s seen a greater increase in glass this year than in any other product. He says that aluminum cans haven’t come in to his center as quickly, but he thinks those are going elsewhere. “I’d say the majority of the aluminum cans are going to metal recycling companies,” said Tew.

County recycling officials say they’ve seen increases in the overall amount of recycling as well. And they say the change in the law isn’t the only reason. They say they’ve implemented programs with schools, utility companies and county buildings that they believe have led to increases as well.

Pick-ups for a new curbside recycling program in Fayetteville begin July 7.