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TURNING WINE INTO A RESOURCE?

Some graduates of Tulane University formed a non-profit called Glass Half Full, where they recycle glass waste. It began with a glass wine bottle. Instead of throwing it away to wind up in a landfill, they smashed the bottle into little pieces to eventually be reused. It caught on and today they are weekly diverting 10,000 pounds of glass from dumps and landfills in and around New Orleans. They are pulverizing glass waste into things like flooring, new glass, sandbags for flood protection, and even sand to restore eroded coastlines. In their 40,000 square foot facility, they have already recycled over 3 million pounds of glass. Rebuilding the sandbars and barrier islands off the coast of New Orleans with sand could help reduce coastal impacts from storms and hurricanes. “Glass Half Full is working with Tulane scientists to test how the recycled glass sand is interacting with the local ecosystem on the microbial level to ensure the work is having a maximum, positive impact.”