Goodwill of Delaware and Delaware Counties unveiled a new machine that will turn glass into sand, supplementing a depleting resource and saving hundreds of thousands of pounds of waste in landfills.
Three Goodwill stores will now operate a glass pulverizer to recycle donated glass that the stores deem unsaleable. Goodwill of Delaware and Delaware County, Goodwill Industries of Chesapeake and Goodwill of Greater Washington will be recipients of the company’s new initiative, with grants from Truist Bank.
A grand opening event was held on May 23 at Goodwill of Delaware and Delaware County, located at 400 Centerpoint Blvd. in Castillo Nuevo.
How does the machine work?
An estimated 350,000 pounds of glass donated to Goodwill in Delaware reaches the landfill at some point.
“In most stores, the glass is broken and cannot be reused or is not sold in the store,” said Colleen Morrone, executive director of Goodwill of Delaware and Delaware County. “Before we put it in the landfill. But now we bring glass here and we can do something else with it.”
The glass pulverizer, aptly named Sandy, is capable of imploding glass shards and turning them into soft sand or gravel that can be reused for other uses. The $86,000 machine is capable of accepting up to 1.5 tons of glass and converting it to its original shape.
Three Goodwill store locations received a $1 million grant from the Truist Charitable Fund to pay for the machines themselves and sustainable workforce training. Morrone estimated that about 1,500 employees will be trained in using the sprayer, while their general knowledge of sustainability will be expanded.
“We can train our entire workforce in all of our retail stores and operations centers on sustainability issues, how to be better stewards of the environment and teach how to bring sustainability into the workplace so they can use it at work and at home “. Morron said.
Too much glass, not enough sand
Not everything donated to Goodwill can be resold or reused. In fact, a large portion of Goodwill Delaware’s 550,000 annual donations end up in landfills.
The organization has already initiated efforts to reduce textile waste by partnering with the University of Delaware’s Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies to recycle fibers from unused clothing.
Sand is the second most used natural resource in the world, behind water, according to a 2022 UN report. It is also used at an increasing rate of 6% each year, a rate that could become unsustainable.
For coastal states like Delaware, which is particularly susceptible to sea level rise, sand is widely used in coastal restoration and erosion control projects around the coasts. The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control oversees dozens of projects each year that replenish shorelines with the sand they need to protect nearby infrastructure.
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Multiple dredging projects are also underway to collect sand from the ocean and use it for shoreline control. Morrone hopes this could be one of the ways the new sand spray machine could be useful to the local community.
“We have a lot of beaches here in Delaware, so we’re looking at all of our opportunities and trying to find the best thing for us here to make Delawareans feel good about donating to Goodwill,” Morrone said.
The sand and gravel created with the glass pulverizer can also be used for construction, landscaping, composting, and home gardening projects.
Molly McVety covers community and environmental issues in Delaware. Contact her at mmcvety@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @mollymcvety.
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