Loyola’s Students for Environmental Action volunteered with Glass Half Full during an event at their new facility in Chalmette where they are conducting a new experiment: building small islands out of recycled glass turned into sand along with Mississippi River sand.
On Sept. 13, Loyola students assisted Glass Half Full in this experiment by removing invasive water hyacinth from the water surrounding their islands.
“[Water hyacinths] are dense floating plants that block sunlight from other plants submerged in the water below, which can lead to low oxygen levels in the water,” said President of SEA and senior environmental studies and political science double major Katie Buc, who attended the event.
Buc and other SEA members submerged themselves in nearly four feet deep water to remove these invasive plants, which blew in and heavily populated the waters after the islands were originally built. Because there are no predators present in the waters to regulate their population, human intervention was necessary to keep the water healthy, according to Buc.
This event was the first time SEA has assisted in anything relating to Glass Half Full’s island project, Buc explained. They were also the first volunteer group to visit the new site due to it having been recently built.
“This event, unlike any we have done before, was amazing. We not only learned so much, but it was amazing to be directly part of a solution,” Buc said.
Glass Half Full was created by two Tulane University students in 2020 who wanted a more transparent glass recycling method for the New Orleans community, according to the introduction in their website. They started by hand-crushing their friends’ glass in their backyard, but as word traveled, they were able to expand their project and move into their new facility on Louisa Street.
“With your support, we hope to continue expanding our initiative to better meet the Gulf South region’s vast glass recycling demands and use the sand we produce to benefit our environment and community,” the website says.
The next community event will be held Saturday, Sept. 20, where Loyola and Tulane are partnering up to host World Cleanup Day to pick up litter in the neighborhoods surrounding universities.
