Glass Half Full: Turning Waste into Coastal Restoration Solutions

Two college students transformed glass waste into sand, proving that individual action can combat climate change effectively.

### Turning Glass Waste into Hope: A Louisiana Initiative for Coastal Restoration
* 🌊 Growing up in Louisiana, the fear of losing land to the Mississippi River was palpable, with the state losing a **football field's worth of land every 100 minutes** due to coastal erosion, totaling **over 600 square miles lost in my lifetime**.
* 🍷 In 2020, during my last semester as an engineering student, my boyfriend and I discovered that Louisiana was landfilling about **295 million pounds of glass annually**, which felt like a **waste we wanted to address**.
* 🔍 A quick Google search revealed that glass is made from **sand, a finite resource**, and we found a small machine that could **crush bottles into sand**, inspiring us to **take action**.
* 💪 Despite skepticism from others, we launched a GoFundMe campaign and initiated a pilot project to **recycle glass into sand for restoration projects**, naming our venture "**Glass Half Full**" to combat the pessimism surrounding climate change.
* 🌱 Since our inception, we have **diverted over 8 million pounds of glass from landfills**, collaborating with over **50 scientists and engineers** to ensure our recycled sand is **beneficial for the environment**.
* 🏗 We are on the verge of opening a new facility that will allow us to **recycle the entire 295 million pounds of glass** that currently enter landfills each year, furthering our impact.
* 🌿 With biodegradable sandbags and Native Marsh grasses, we have already restored **thousands of square meters of wetlands**, demonstrating that **hope combined with action** can lead to **significant change**.
* 🚀 Our journey emphasizes that **starting with belief in our ability to make a difference is crucial**, and taking that first step can lead to **meaningful contributions to solving larger environmental issues**.

As a kid growing up on a Louisiana Bayou, the boogeyman was the existential threat of my state being washed away with the Mississippi River. Louisiana loses a football field's worth of land every 100 minutes due to coastal erosion. It's an unimaginably large amount to a kid, but in my lifetime so far, we've lost over 600 square miles. That's more area than New York City, San Francisco, DC, and Atlanta combined. It's due to sea level rise, warming waters, increasingly severe storms, and exploitation of the oil and gas industry. Fast forward to 2020, in my last full semester as an engineering student, and over a Two Buck Chuck, my boyfriend and I lamented over the lack of glass recycling in Louisiana. My state was landfilling about 295 million pounds of glass annually. The bottle we just finished would likely end up in a landfill. It felt like a total waste, and we wanted to figure out how we could get all of this glass recycled. The next day, it took a quick

Google search to remember that glass comes from sand, and that sand is an increasingly finite resource. We also learned about everything sand is needed for, including toothpaste, by the way. And the last puzzle piece we found was this small human-sized machine that could crush one bottle at a time into sand. And we jumped into action, setting up a GoFundMe campaign and a pilot project in the backyard of a fraternity house. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, How in the world would two college kids ever be able to make a dent in these problems? And that would be valid. Plenty of people told us the exact same thing, but we didn't listen because we knew that no matter how small of an impact we made, it would be worth it. It felt like we could alleviate two problems with one solution: convert the otherwise landfill glass back into sand and use it in restoration projects across the state. Easy, right? But we didn't listen to the haters, which is actually why we named our company Glass Half Full. But that glass half-empty mindset might

actually be one of the biggest threats we face today because climate apathy might be the new climate denial, meaning that the biggest threat to our environment may no longer be people who deny our part in the changing climate, but people who deny that we can actually make a difference. Now, climate change is happening right before our eyes. It's terrifying. I've witnessed firsthand the severity of rapidly intensifying hurricanes like Ida. But dread, doom, and gloom tend to get us nowhere, whereas hope combined with action can be one of the most powerful tools to enact change. Since that late-night wine-fueled idea over four years ago, we've been able to divert more than 8 million pounds of glass from our landfill. Thank you. We quickly grew out of that small tiny machine and upgraded a lot along the way. We continue to work with over 50 scientists and engineers across the Gulf South, and they helped me learn if this is good-smelling mud or not, but also understanding the interactions of our sand with the plants, animals, and even

fungi of our region. We've also answered difficult scientific questions, as well as questions like, Can you actually walk on sand made from glass? And I exposed my toes to the internet to answer that. In a few short months, we'll be opening up our new facility, enabling us to recycle the 295 million pounds of glass entering our landfills annually. And with a combination of biodegradable sandbags and Native Marsh grasses, we've already restored thousands of square meters along our Coast, converting Open Water back into thriving Wetlands. But the key to our success so far isn't that we had all of the answers in the beginning or tons of money to try this thing out. The key was that we simply started and we kept going, in somewhere the belief that we as individuals could enact change trumped our doubts. And for us, finding a way to help with a problem much, much bigger than us meant taking that first step, and in our case, it was a step in the sand in an eroding but once magnificent swamp.

Your Empty Wine Bottle Could Help Rebuild Coastlines | Franziska Trautmann | TED

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Tackling Coastal Erosion and Glass Waste in Louisiana

Louisiana is losing land at an alarming rate due to coastal erosion, with over 600 square miles gone in the author's lifetime.

The author and their boyfriend started a glass recycling initiative after realizing the state's significant glass waste.

They set up a GoFundMe campaign and a pilot project to crush glass bottles into sand, aiming to alleviate both glass waste and contribute to restoration projects in the state.

The Impact of Climate Apathy and a Success Story

Climate apathy, the belief that individual actions won't make a difference, is now a major threat to environmental progress.

The speaker's initiative has successfully diverted over 8 million pounds of glass from landfills and is set to recycle 295 million pounds annually.

Through biodegradable sandbags and Native Marsh grasses, they have restored thousands of square meters of coastline, demonstrating that taking the first step can lead to meaningful change.

Expressing gratitude is important for building positive relationships.

A simple "thank you" can make a significant impact on others.

Showing appreciation can also enhance one's own well-being and happiness.