Glass Recycling Drop Off with Glassroots
New Orleans Public Library
Innovation Synopsis
The New Orleans Public Library partnered with Glassroots, the nonprofit arm of Glass Half Full, to provide glass recycling drop-off at 3 locations. Glass is recycled into sand and glass cullet for coastal restoration, eco-construction, and more. This sustainability initiative diverts glass from the landfill and repurposes it for positive community impact.
Challenge/Opportunity
New Orleans has residential recycling pick-up once a week. Through this program residents can recycle cardboard, paper, plastic, and metal. The City does not recycle glass. We are also a below sea level City that has to mitigate water through flooding from rain, coastal erosion, and hurricane aftermath.
Glass Half Full is a local business that saw this need and stepped into it. They began offering subscription commercial and residential glass recycling. As they grew, they developed a nonprofit arm called Glassroots. The Library partnered with Glassroots to offer free drop off locations around the City bringing free glass recycling into our communities. This partnership also creates an avenue for direct action to be part of a community effort for sustainability and coastal restoration.
Key Elements of Innovation
The New Orleans Public Library partners with Glassroots and the Friends of the New Orleans Public Library to bring glass recycling to our locations. We host glass recycling drop-off days at three of our locations once a month. Glassroots staffs the drop-off. Members of the public can bring their clean glass to recycle it. At the end of the drop-off, the full cans are picked up, and empty cans are dropped off for next month’s drop-off. Glass is only accepted during program hours, and drop-off cans are locked between services.
Glass recycling may not be a traditional partnership or service for Libraries to engage in. This pairs a need (glass recycling) with an issue (water mitigation), uniting them both into a solution. It’s a unique way to bring patrons to the Library and to give them a way to be a part of a community sustainability effort with environmental impact.
Achieved Outcomes
We collect the number of people who come to drop offs, how many cans are filled, the pounds of glass that are recycled, pounds of sand made, and sandbags produced. Since the partnership began in April of 2023, 1.323 people have recycled approximately 49,000 lbs. or ~24.5 tons of glass at the Library drops. In just 2024, we’ve recycling 28,175 lbs. (~14 tons).
The statistics have been something we’ve been really proud of. We are planning an expansion to a new location this Fall.
Comments on Social Media:
- “That’s awesome news! Love Glass half full and so happy to hear the library will be able to make using them this much easier for folks.“
- “Oh you need to get one of these going uptown”
- “Hope more library drop off locations will be added!”
- “Yay”
- "Thank you!"
- "Great news! I hope it expands to Milton Latter too."
Staff:
“This is terrific. What a wonderful community response!!”
“I am very excited about this partnership!”