By: Leigh Anne Geiter
Nature does not know the concept of waste; the only species capable of making something no one desires is the human species.” -Gunter Pauli, Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives
I gleefully scooped up our two green glass recycling containers two weeks ago, during the City of Corpus Christi’s Glass Recycle Day, happy to get them out of my garage and headed over to Del Mar College’s East Campus to drop off the load. Besides the tinkling and breaking of glass that filled the air upon my arrival, I heard a lot of great news about recycling glass. First, I noticed that the glass was separated into different bins by color: brown & green glass, other colored glass, and clear glass. I then saw that some of the colored glass, particularly blue, was being set aside before even making it into the bins, so I wondered what that was all about and that’s when I met “The Glass Ladies.” Deb and her partner pull out the most desirable colored glass containers before they hit the shattered stage in the bins and melt the bottles down to make beautiful art glass objects: cheese trays, finials for lamps, jewelry, and hanging patio lights set inside repurposed glass bottles (Dos Equis)…I probably contributed enough bottles to keep her busy with hanging patio lights for a while, as we missed the City’s first quarter Glass Recycling event earlier in the spring. You can check out “The Glass Ladies” at The Farmer’s Market on weekends and see their beautiful offerings. Get a beautiful object for yourself or as a gift and know that you are helping the environment!
In talking to “The Glass Ladies” about the colored glass containers that they were saving for their art work, they mentioned the term “UPCYCLING.” So I asked them to explain and learned that when you take a recyclable item and can create something else of greater value from it, it’s called “UPCYCLING.” So I wondered, what else can be “UPCYCLED?” I searched a few websites and was thrilled and excited as so many of the products. Initially, I would say that most of the items being “UPCYCLED” are being turned into jewelry, furniture, home accessories, and more.
If you’re curious, like me, here’s a great website that will give you tons of ideas on how simple recyclable items in your home or office could result in “UPCYCLING!”
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