Glass recycling in New Orleans, working to protect our coast

“Glass Half Full” located in New Orleans, LA is on a mission. Their efforts result in millions of glass bottles not ending up in landfills but instead reinforcing our Louisiana coasts and levees. Their vision is to produce hundreds of thousands of pounds of sand annually to supply the rapidly depleting resource globally. They aim to provide a more sustainable alternative to sand extraction and sand mining. Sand extraction is a $70 billion dollar industry and provides profound opportunity for New Orleans. Louisiana requires hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of sand, further intensifying coastal erosion — sand is dredged and sucked from the bottom of waterways — and costing the city millions of dollars annually. The converted glass-product — super soft beach-like sand — can rebuild entire coastlines at a fraction of a price.

The free glass recycling hub locations are listed on their website: https://glasshalffullnola.org/hub

Or they will pick your glass up directly from your curb, starting at just $25 per month. This monthly fee helps support our initiative from the ground-up.

They also sell sand and cullet by the pound. https://glasshalffullnola.org/shop

So save your glass bottles and jars and next time you head down to New Orleans, drop them off at the recycling hub!