From a nine year old boy starting a recycling empire, to college students making breakthroughs in the recycling world, today I want to tell you about a woman that created New Orlean’s first glass recycling plant. When we think of recycling, I’m sure most people think of melting material down and turning it into recycled new material. This woman has taken on a new stance and actually turns glass into a sand-like material that can be used for countless purposes! She found a way to use it for disaster relief, eco-construction, and more! One of the early projects in New Orlean’s, once they figured out how to crush glass into a fine sand-like material, was to then make loads of sandbags full of it to give out to people to prepare for floods and hurricanes.
Now they are looking into coastal projects where they can build back up areas which need more sand, but they can use this material instead of digging up sand elsewhere to transport. They are also planning to use it to make concrete for construction. You can read the transcript, however it may be easier to listen to the podcast since the transcript has occasional errors from translation.
Enjoy this article about the amazing Franziska Trautmann.