Atlanta- Digging in my yard/Superfund site

[WTFisinmyyard]

I wanted to share some of the many bottles that I found uncovered in my yard. My yard is now an EPA Superfund site because it is full of municipal incinerator waste from a century ago. I did not know that incinerators burn waste at a very low heat which preserves the bottles. I am happy to share the dig spot if you live nearby. I am a new member. Please let me know if I am sharing too much. : )

 

[UnderMiner]

That Brandi Mist bottle is a rare find and may be quite valuable if it's in good condition. If you clean it up and look closely on the bottom edge you may find the date of manufacture embossed there. Your yard is probably filled with all sorts of old soda bottles from different companies. Focus on collecting, researching, and preserving these - some are rarer and more valuable than others. You are in Coca-Cola country so collect every old Coke bottle you see.

 

[WTFisinmyyard]

That Brandi Mist bottle is a rare find and may be quite valuable if it's in good condition. If you clean it up and look closely on the bottom edge you may find the date of manufacture embossed there. Your yard is probably filled with all sorts of old soda bottles from different companies. Focus on collecting, researching, and preserving these - some are rarer and more valuable than others.

I appreciate the feedback. I will clean it and let you know.

 

[willong]

I appreciate the feedback. I will clean it and let you know.

Welcome to the forum!

That Brandi Mist bottle certainly caught my eye. My own interest lies more with earlier, blown-in-mold, hand finished bottles. (You'll see "BIM" acronym or BIMAL, with the "AL" referring to Applied Lip, used frequently by bottle diggers and collectors as a shorthand to describe bottles that were produced by a team of glassblower and one or two assistants, rather than made by a machine.) That said, I'd be thrilled to help you excavate your site if I lived in the area.

If you are not finding a significant portion of bottles distorted by melting, it might be that your site was used for dumping incinerator ash along with other trash that was not actually processed through the incinerator furnace. If that's the case, it bodes well for bottle recovery. I don't see the type of damage on the bottles in your photos that one would expect from just a trash pit burn, let alone an industrial incinerator.

 

[CanadianBottles]

That red enamel sign with the H looks interesting, I'd like to see a photo of that! Find any other enamel signs? Those are often the best finds in dumps of that era, rather than the bottles (although it looks like you're finding some nice sodas too)

 

[WTFisinmyyard]

I appreciate the feedback. I will clean it and let you know.

The date on the bottle is May 1926

That red enamel sign with the H looks interesting, I'd like to see a photo of that! Find any other enamel signs? Those are often the best finds in dumps of that era, rather than the bottles (although it looks like you're finding some nice sodas too)

Here it is. I don't find much in the way of signs. I will tell the EPA earth movers to look out for more. They are very nice.

 

[CanadianBottles]

The date on the bottle is May 1926

Here it is. I don't find much in the way of signs. I will tell the EPA earth movers to look out for more. They are very nice.

That sign is in great shape! Not one I remember seeing before, although enamel signs aren't something I'm that familiar with (only ever found a couple and they're way out of my price range to buy). Probably a pretty early one too considering the age of the bottles you're finding, since it presumably would have spent years hanging on a wall before being thrown out.

 

[hemihampton]

I'm surprised the EPA lets you poke around there; I was under the impression these superfund sites are highly toxic & nobody allowed in with out hard hat & white toxic jump suite & gloves & Respirator. There was a guy in here like 15 years ago telling some story about a site like this in southern Florida, like Key West. But this site was not 1920's or 30s. more like 1840's-70's with wild colored pontil bottles every where. Fenced off, would not let him in. said he could not have any of the bottles because of Contamination. SO, he had to stand at fence & watch the Bulldozers plow over these great Pontil bottles. Depressing. Leon.