Ever since glass recycling dissapeared from the borough, we had this idea in mind to buy a glass pulverizing machine that crushed glass bottles into sand for beaches.

In the spring of 2022, we started a GoFundMe and posted it to the neighborhood Facebook page just to see if else felt like us about throwing away glass. We were met with so much support from local community members and neighbors, that our effort was soon circulating in the local news. We raised a large percentage of the money needed through GoFundMe.

The Goldstream Valley Lions Club, also offered a generous donation.

We decided, as a family, to fund the rest of the cost ourselves and purchased the G.L. Sand 2.0 in the fall of 2022.

As a thank-you to the community’s support during fundraising, we have since been hosting events where we collect glass from anyone who brings us clean glass. We then take the glass back to our garage and turn it into sand.

We must hand-feed one bottle at a time into the G.L.Sand and a bottle becomes non-sharp sand in 5 seconds! The machine uses a bit of power (comparable to a clothes dryer), therefore, we try coordinate usage with the output of residential solar panels on our property.

The sand can be re-used in many ways throughout the community including use in parks and gardens because it is safe to touch. See our Projects page for ideas.

In our first year, we have produced over 2000 pounds of sand, saving an estimate of 4000 glass bottles & jars from the trash.

Here’s where you can help! We are always looking for people to experiment & find new uses for the sand. The more uses that we can find for the sand product, the more glass we will be able to crush for the community.

If you have a use for some crushed glass "sand'“, we welcome you to contact us at AlaskaGlassRoots@gmail.com

We are now selling 10 pound sandbags filled with our fine glass sand product, in a white cotton bag (no plastic here) for $10 per sandbag. Email AlaskaGlassRoots@gmail.com