The glass recycling company, Ripple Glass, collected its one billionth bottle Thursday morning.
Since 2009, Ripple Glass has put large purple bins all throughout the city, collecting glass bottles and jars.
“Tens of thousands of area residents have been saving their glass bottles and jars at home, taking them to a ripple glass bin,” Ripple Glass Kansas City Director, Stacia Stelk said. “We hit a major milestone as Kevin delivered our billionth bottle to our Ripple Glass bin, as it is pretty exciting for us."
Kevin Rotert recycled his glass bottles, not knowing one of them would mark the billionth and win him a prize.
“Well I certainly didn't contribute that many to it, but hey it's another milestone,” Rotert said. “I've been recycling for years. It just makes sense. We have landfills that are growing day by day, we're running out of space, we're wasting natural resources, it only makes sense to recycle whatever we can.”
Once you recycle those glass bottles in the purple bins, they’re taken to the Ripple Glass processing plant.
As recycling crews sift through what is glass and what isn’t, Stelk says everything is collected and processed locally.
Stelk says with this billionth bottle being recycled, it goes a long way for the residents in Kansas City.
“Saving one ton of glass saves exactly one ton of raw materials. Recycling one bottle saves enough to light a CFL for seven hours,” Stelk said. “And today, hitting one billion bottles, that saves enough energy to power all Kansas City homes for 18 days. That's a pretty impressive statistic.”
After the glass is collected and processed, the end product looks similar to sand, which is taken to Owens Corning in Kansas City, Kansas.
“They take the bulk of our material to make fiber glass installation, so everything we do is local, stays local and it's great for local jobs and installation is great for our local homes, making them energy efficient too,” Stelk said.
To find out where you can recycle you glass bottles, clickhere.
