Revelations

RECLYCLING * RECICLAGEM

It all started on a quiet empty beach. Hot days soaking up the sun sipping on a cocktail contemplating the pleasures in life. Realizing that there were very few things available that we might need, glasses for example. I looked over to my husband and said |” I am sure I could make a glass for your bar from all your empties|” That was the beginning of a journey that would lead to many more exciting discoveries of personal growth and challenges.

I started to teach a few of our local community members on how to find the value of everyday waste that was fast becoming a problem as our little town started to grow. The idea was to teach them how to make something that would not only benefit our environment but also benefit themselves. Soon we were producing many styles of glasses which proved to be very popular not only in our business but also to the visitors and residents. We were even producing enough to start selling them to assist in covering the costs and generate a small income.

I was so proud of our achievements in helping conserve our beautiful area but started to be extremely concerned with the fact that we were not only creating new products from the bottles but we were also creating a huge amount of dangerous bi-waste with all the broken glass. Sleepless nights concerned with the situation started to become another bi-product. I needed to find a solution to the problem I had created. During the cutting process I had stockpiled a lot of smashed bottles, taking care to separate all the colors, I had bins full of it. I tried crushing it by hand to reduce the volume, but this was also proving dangerous with the glass dust filling up the air. Ok, I was getting traumatized, I needed a solution, quick, the bins were filling up, fast.

My father came to my rescue. Being a very practical guy and very good at all types of handy work, he found a dead washing machine and within a few days proudly presented me with our manual glass crusher. An ingenious concept of putting a handle onto the drum, welding a few holes, attaching a catchment tray and voilà, problem solved. We were soon crushing all the broken glass into minuscule particles. Soon the full bins were reduced to a few buckets. Now what? There had to be a good use for all these particles, thats when I thought about trying to make a counter-top. Internet had only just arrived in our area, this alone was huge progress and everyone was buzzing with the opportunities it would bring us. New to the Internet world I started searching for answers and finally found the recipe to produce a solid, durable kitchen top. After a few experiments we were proud to launch our new product to the world and look for some clients who wanted something unique. We were very fortunate a few of our residents put their trust in our product and soon we had done a few kitchens, consuming way more crushed glass than we had originally produced when making the glasses. I was so excited this idea not only helped us reduce the broken glass but we had even needed to go to the waste site to purchase more bottles. Overall a great solution to reducing our glass waste.

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