However, problems with the recycling system itself can defeat even the best intentions.
For example, New Orleans, Louisiana, does not recycle glass through its normal processes.
Even one glass bottle can send an entire recycling bin to a landfill.
Two students at Tulane UniversityFranziska Trautmann and Max Steitzset out to solve this problem of wasted glass.
The company accepts drop-off donations of glass, which is then ground down into varying levels of fineness.
Some is transformed into cullet or gravel.
These rougher materials are used in restoration projects, eco-construction, and to create new glass.
Other glass is turned into sandthe material that glass has been made from for millennia.
The fine sand has a special use.
It is critical to rebuilding Louisiana’s swiftly eroding coastline.
Since the 1930s, over a quarter of the state’s wetlands have eroded.
The land cannot naturally be replenished fast enough.
Adding human-made sand can help reclaim this space and protect existing environments.
Burlap sand bags are critical to this mission as well as disaster relief.
The burlap is biodegradable, eventually leaving only the new sediment behind.
