Recycling glass into sand is helping Louisiana address its coastal erosion crisis as a New Orleans company transforms 100,000 pounds of discarded bottles monthly into material for wetland restoration, disaster relief, and flood protection projects.
Recycling glass into sand addresses two environmental challenges simultaneously. Louisiana loses approximately one football field鈥檚 worth of coastline every 90 minutes. Meanwhile, New Orleans produces massive amounts of glass waste without a municipal recycling program. Glass Half Full addresses this by collecting bottles and crushing them into sand for coastal restoration.
Franziska Trautmann and Max Steitz founded the company in January 2020, while they were seniors at Tulane University. They started operations in a fraternity backyard on Broadway Street. The idea emerged during a conversation over wine, when they realized their bottle would join millions of others in landfills.