Glass Half Full bets on a bigger future in Chalmette
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Franziska Trautmann is the co-founder and CEO of Glass Half Full. Photo: Courtesy of Franziska Trautmann
Glass Half Full started with two Tulane students, a pile of bottles and an idea. Six years later, it's a 25-person company serving three states.
Why it matters: The homegrown business has found success solving a problem New Orleans has long struggled with — what to do with all those empty glass bottles.
The big picture: Franziska Trautmann and co-founder Max Steitz came up with the idea for an urban glass recycling program in 2020 when they were college seniors.
- They started with small crushers and have since scaled up with high-tech equipment.
- Steitz oversees the daily operations as COO and CFO, while Trautmann is the CEO and the face of the business with more than 375,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram.
- The pink-haired Carencro native also has given a TED talk, been honored by TikTok and won a pitch contest with MrBeast and Shopify.
The latest: Glass Half Full recently announced it is moving all operations to its 3-acre facility in Chalmette, which opened last year.
- "It's like the glass recycling facility of our dreams," Trautmann tells Axios.
- The larger facility has allowed Glass Half Full to "significantly" expand commercial recycling.
- The goal is to add more drop-off points across town to make it easier for residents after the Louisa Street location closes at the end of the month.
What she's saying: "I think just being relentlessly optimistic about your solution and what you think can happen has gotten us really far, and I always try to instill that in other people who want to make a change because it is possible," Trautmann says.
How it works: Glass Half Full is a for-profit business with commercial and residential services.
- It also has a contract with Jefferson Parish to run the parish's recycling drop-off after the council ended curbside recycling.
- The business collects glass bottles and processes them into either sand or cullet, which is crushed glass that manufacturers turn into new bottles.
Zoom in: Glass Half Full and its partners use the sand for coastal restoration.
- They were part of a multiyear experiment to see if plants could grow in the sand from glass. They can. Other experiments are ongoing.
- The recycled sand has been used to build four islands in Louisiana, with two more in the works.
- The sand was also used to build the living shoreline at Bucktown Harbor.
What's next: Glass Half Full's "Glass Gala" is Friday night at Latrobe's. The "Alice in Wonderland"-themed costume party is a fundraiser for Glassroots.
- Glassroots is its nonprofit partner that runs the free glass drop-offs and implements green infrastructure projects.