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To combat coastal erosion, recent college grads, Franziska Trautmann and Max Steitz, created the only glass recycling facility in the United States that recycles glass into sand to reintegrate into the environment.
The world is running out of sand. This issue caused by our ever-growing infrastructure and exacerbated by climate-change driven rise in sea levels and flooding, could result in the extinction of almost half of the world’s sandy beaches by 2100.
Our current sand extraction methods, although standard, are detrimental to the environment and aquatic ecosystem.
Franziska Trautmann (left) and Max Steitz (right), founded Glass Half Full to combat this sand shortage, solve a lack of local glass recycling, and help restore Louisiana's disappearing coast.
Their facility works by 1. collecting & sorting New Orlean's used glass
2. Pulverizing & processing the glass
3. Distributing the glass sand for new glass products, disaster relief sandbags, and reintegrating the sand directly into the environment
Reaching beyond Louisiana's Coast, they are using a $700,000 grant from The National Science Foundation to expand their efforts to other states and experiment with their recycled sand on native plants, marine wildlife, and study its angles/size for optimum erosion control.
The world is running out of sand. This issue caused by our ever-growing infrastructure and exacerbated by climate-change driven rise in sea levels and flooding, could result in the extinction of almost half of the world’s sandy beaches by 2100.
Our current sand extraction methods, although standard, are detrimental to the environment and aquatic ecosystem.
Franziska Trautmann (left) and Max Steitz (right), founded Glass Half Full to combat this sand shortage, solve a lack of local glass recycling, and help restore Louisiana's disappearing coast.
Their facility works by 1. collecting & sorting New Orlean's used glass
2. Pulverizing & processing the glass
3. Distributing the glass sand for new glass products, disaster relief sandbags, and reintegrating the sand directly into the environment
Reaching beyond Louisiana's Coast, they are using a $700,000 grant from The National Science Foundation to expand their efforts to other states and experiment with their recycled sand on native plants, marine wildlife, and study its angles/size for optimum erosion control.
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