February 2021 Service

February 23, 2021

February Hours: 3

Running Total: 18

After our second exam this month, I hopped in my car with all of my glass and headed to Louisa street for another afternoon with GHF!

Agnes was there- she is one of my favorite volunteers to work with. The warehouse has an "Agnes Zone" where she stores, cleans, and organizes special glass that she repurposes, gives away to NOLA artists & creators. Large drums of glass can be reused for making beer/wine. We also get tons of beautiful vases, cups, random glass objects that Agnes stores and lets people take if they want it! I have a few vases from GHF that I have been keeping full of Trader Joe's flowers the past few months.

Lots of the bottles we receive have pieces that cannot go into the machines immediately. Whiskey bottles with rubber decoration, champagne bottles with metal bottoms, and anything with a lagniappe of plastic. I recorded myself using a screwdriver to peel off plastics from vodka (or gin? I don't remember) bottles. But the top picture is me posing with all the bottles I removed plastic from.

One important thing I try to show in the video is the circular plastic that is surrounding the lip of the bottle. SO much plastic that we recycle has these loops, which are super dangerous to birds & other animals (land & sea!) that may potentially cause them harm! If everyone was sure to cut these, from water and gatorade bottles, etc. we could save so many birds!

Sadly, the Joliet St. location has officially closed. The majority of people drop off their glass uptown, but this warehouse was much smaller than the one at Louisa! For the amount of glass received, there was no way to find a sustainable/ergonomic way to transport it all back to Louisa. This picture shows the many milk crates that were FULL of glass from the mini mountain. It was all cleared out!

I have placed more flier cards for GHF within the medical school. GHF admin are in the process of expanding their glass pick up system, so not everyone must come to the warehouse. For a small price each month, Fran & Max will drop off a glass container & come pick it up when it's full, then drop it back off! They are also in the process of creating glass drop off sites. These are more difficult, however.

We have to double check that all the dropped off glass is surely ALL glass, free of caps and corks. Also when the organization began last year, the soap drums would fill up quickly, and Tulane students would just leave plastic bags full of glass OUTSIDE of the soap drums when they were full. We definitely don't need an increase of litter & garbage in this city. The scattered glass drop-off locations will have to be well-thought out, and potentially be monitored. Once full, they need to be picked up!

It's been a really crazy month for me! Earlier this month was my 23rd birthday! I had a lovely time going to see house floats with Mary Neil, Kara, and my boyfriend, Matt (in the Biochem BMS program). Matt also got me this bracelet from a project that Glass Half Full & NOLA Alchemy teamed up on together. They made 100 red heart bracelets for Valentine's Day, and I got lucky bracelet #40! Each one is different. They are handblown with the glass we recycle!