Meraux Foundation Partners with Glass Half Full to Expand Glass Recycling Drop-Off in St. Bernard Parish
The Meraux Foundation has partnered with Glass Half Full to open St. Bernard Parish’s first drop-off hub for glass recyclables.
It is conveniently located at the Meraux Foundation’s Docville Farm at 5124 E St. Bernard Hwy. in Violet and open to the public Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. (except during holidays, including the upcoming closure around Memorial Day). Residents and businesses are encouraged to bring their glass bottles and jars for recycling and deposit them in the blue bins placed along the downriver side of Docville’s horseshoe driveway.
“We’re thrilled to continue our support of Glass Half Full as it turns trash into treasure,” said Chris Haines, a board member of the Meraux Foundation. “We’ve been impressed with their growth and success over the years, and their work aligns with ours to improve the economy and environment in St. Bernard Parish and beyond.”
In 2021, Glass Half Full won the annual Startup St. Bernard pitch competition, which the Meraux Foundation created and sponsored as a presenter. Since then, the two organizations have been making headway on plans to open a glass recycling facility in St. Bernard Parish.
“The Meraux Foundation and others in St. Bernard Parish have been so welcoming and supportive, and we are thrilled to begin expanding our presence in the area, starting with this first drop–off hub at Docville,” said Franziska Trautmann, Glass Half Full’s co-founder and CEO. “There’s a real close connection here in St. Bernard between the community doing the recycling and the benefits of glass recycling, from economic to environmental.”
“Our ultimate goal is to use our recycled sand to help restore Louisiana's eroding shoreline,” added Max Steitz, Glass Half Fulls co-founder and CFO. “The sand we create from glass provides a sustainable alternative to traditional sand extraction techniques that disrupt local ecosystems, contribute to the coastal erosion crisis, and cost millions of dollars annually.”
Glass Half Full has diverted over 3.3 million pounds of glass from landfills. In 2022 alone, it collected over 1.5 million pounds of glass to be recycled into sand for coastal restoration, disaster relief, new glass products, and more.
Glass Half Full offers multiple free drop-off hubs throughout New Orleans, and now St. Bernard Parish, where it collects glass “waste” from area residents. It also offers collection services for residents, businesses, and events across several parishes. Once the company diverts glass from the landfill, it sorts it by color and removes all plastic and metal components. The glass is then recycled into sand and glass cullet for disaster relief and prevention, coastal restoration, eco-construction, new glass products, and more.
The drop-off hub located at Docville Farm is the first to open in St. Bernard Parish, and others are planned for Chalmette and Arabi. Glass Half Full also offers residential pickup in Arabi for $22 per month, and it will spread that service to other parts of the parish as demand increases.
About Glass Half Full
As seniors at Tulane University in 2020, Glass Half Full’s co-founders were disappointed and frustrated with the lack of glass recycling in New Orleans. One night, over a bottle of wine that they knew would end up at the landfill unless they did something about it, they hatched a plan to combat this problem. Specifically, they wanted a system that was transparent, accessible, and most importantly, actually recycled glass into something functional. Instead of trying to take on the task of reforming the current system, they decided to look at the ‘glass half full’ by implementing our own grassroots glass recycling program. So far, they’ve diverted over 3.3 million pounds of glass from landfills to be recycled into sand for coastal restoration, disaster relief, new glass products, and more.