The Glass Recycling Foundation awards $137K in grants

The Glass Recycling Foundation (GRF), a Michigan-based nonprofit focused on promoting glass recycling, has released its 2024 Impact Report, highlighting $137,000 in grants. The grant money has supported eight projects, diverting 2,700 tons, or 5.4 million pounds, of glass from landfills. This equates to over 12.3 million glass bottles that were recycled because of the GRF’s local engagements.  

The grants were made possible by donations from American Online Giving Foundation, Anheuser Busch Foundation, Ardagh Group, Bacardi, Corona Protect Our Beaches, Fairfield County’s Community Foundation, Glass Recycling Institute, Knauf Insulation, Suntory and Urban Mining Industries. 

“Recycling diverts valuable glass from landfills, creating feedstock for manufacturing new glass containers [and] fiberglass insulation,” says Scott DeFife, president of the Glass Recycling Foundation and president of the Glass Packaging Institute, Arlington, Virginia. “The Glass Recycling Foundation provides support to organizations that share the same values to keep glass in local recycling programs and on the infinite recycling loop.” 

• BIG Recyclers, Walla Walla, Washington, received $3,600 to purchase an 8-foot-by-10-foot trailer and 18 50-gallon recycling bins to support a new rural recycling spoke in eastern Washington state. 
• Baldwin County, Alabama, received $21,000 to purchase containers, a crusher, and supporting education for a new glass recycling program. 
• Macomb, Illinois, received $15,000 to purchase a glass dumpster to support recycling in McDonough County. 
• James City County, Virginia, received $16,000 to purchase purple buckets and support education/outreach for purple bin program. 
• Lawrence-Mercer County, Pennsylvania, received $17,500 to construction a glass bunker to aggregate glass and establish a glass recycling drop-off program. 
• Logan County, Ohio, received $13,052 to upgrade a recycling facility to improve efficiencies and allow for more drop-off glass. 
• Pennsylvania Resources Council, Pittsburgh received $21,000 to purchase one permanent drop-off bin and one traveling bin to increase glass recycling in eastern Pennsylvania (the Philadelphia region). 
• Workwell Industries, Louisville, Kentucky, received $30,000 to support the collection of clean, flint glass bottles from distilleries, tasting rooms and bottling facilities in Kentucky to crush into glass cullet and return to glass manufacturers. 
  

Additional progress has been made on several projects awarded GRF grant funds in 2023. 

• Keep Waco Beautiful (KWB), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in central Texas, received a $10,000 grant to relaunch its community glass recycling program. KWB used the funding to purchase drop-off bins and increase its services to local businesses. It also provides community education using English and Spanish handouts and promotional materials. KWB has received positive feedback that the community is very happy to have its glass recycling services back. In 2024, KWB collected more than 299 tons of glass for recycling. 
• Temple in central Texas received a $19,000 grant to support its Save that Glass! project, which aims to reduce contamination of recycled glass and increase participation in glass recycling throughout the south and west areas of the city. The funds were used to purchase an additional recycling trailer that will be placed in a new part of the city for residents to drop off their glass. Although the trailer has been purchased, the project has not been launched. The city anticipates adding an additional 110 tons of recycled glass per year with this project. 
  

“There is no silver bullet that will solve for glass recycling nationwide. Recycling is a hyper-local issue requiring a customized solution for the community or region,” says Laura Hannemann, secretary of the Glass Recycling Foundation and director of corporate affairs with Sibelco Group, which is based in Belgium and acquired U.S.-based glass recycler Strategic Materials last summer. “The GRF works with other organizations to identify issues, collaborate on potential pathways forward and implement solutions that are right-sized to make a significant impact in glass recycling.”