USVI Glass Recovery

Through the USVI Glass Recovery Program, we can collect glass beverage bottles which are then pulverized into sand and glass cullets (essentially gravel made from glass). Paper/plastic labels can be left on the glass beverage bottles; however, it is important to review our Glass Collection Guidelines as not every glass beverage botte can be accepted for crushing. Fill out our General Inquiry Form to volunteer or schedule a drop-off of your glass beverage bottles at our UVI location.

Using machinery purchased from Expleco.com, our team pulverizes collected glass beverage bottles. During the crushing process, personal protective equipment (PPE) is always utilized to include ear muffs, safety eyewear, and respirators. Once glass beverage bottles meet the criteria for crushing, each bottle can be crushed in as little as 3 seconds. 

In this photo, you can see a combination of recycled crushed glass sand and cullets. This mixture is safe to touch without gloves; however, care should be excerised to wash your hands after touching. This mixture can be utilized for a myriad of purposes which you can read more about in the Solid Waste Integration Management Plan. 

 

After the mixture has been sifted, cullets are added to a bin and rinsed to remove any remaining beverage and paper labels. Since the labels are mostly lightweight (paper/plastic), they easily float to the surface and can be skimmed away, leaving mostly glass cullets. 

Instead of filling sandbags with beach sand or sand made from the crushing of rocks, we can fill sandbags with the recycled crushed glass sand (sand+cullets+labels). This mixture works just like a typical sandbag and helps to retain moisture making the mixture usable for landscaping and gardening applications.

Recycled crushed glass (primarily the glass cullets) can be used with resin for arts and crafts. The uses of recycled crushed glass are virtually endless!