Got Glass? 911 Glass Rescue Can Help

Rotary Club offers glass recycling every Saturday

originally published in Lake Chelan Rotary Club Newsletter

After over two and one-half years of operation, 911 Glass Rescue has crushed over 705,000 pounds of post-consumer glass, converting it to glass sand and aggregate with a variety of useful applications. That’s over 58,000 cubic feet of glass that is not languishing in the local landfill. For reference, 58,000 cubic feet of glass would fill about 13 rail cars from floor to ceiling.

Every week, 911 Glass serves approximately 80 to 100 customers at the Chelan Recycle Center. This effort requires 9 to 10 volunteers each Saturday. Rotary is proud that many of our regular volunteers are from the community at large, demonstrating the robust support that our community brings to this community service project.

Thirty-one local wineries and many local businesses regularly use our service. One of the newest Lake Chelan wineries, Bivouac Cellars, recently came in as a sponsor of the project at the $1,000 level. 911 Glass Rescue is grateful to all sponsors, regardless of their level of sponsorship, some as high as $20,000 and some smaller wineries doing their part at the $500 level. All are critical to the project’s long-term financial success.

911 Glass continues to sell the glass sand and aggregate by the 5-gallon bucket, but a recent collaboration with Bob’s Apple Barrel Bark has made it possible to sell and deliver larger quantities. Bob’s recently had a sale to a local landscaper of 10 cubic yards and is looking forward to making more large-volume sales in the Spring. We are also looking forward to a “glassphalt” pilot project with the City of Chelan, also slated for this Spring.

Aside from the feature piece in the Rotary Magazine in December, 2023, 911 Glass Rescue has also made presentations to 10 area Rotary clubs and continues to field inquiries from communities around the world who hope to emulate this important project.

How does 911 Glass Rescue work?

Bring your relatively-clean glass bottles, jars and ceramics to the City of Chelan Recycle Center (located on Hwy. 97-A — across from Walmart) any Saturday between 10 a.m. and noon.

You will be charged a modest fee according to weight to help defray our costs. For example: at 2 cents a pound (rounded up to the next dollar), 3 cases of wine bottles would be $1 to recycle.

Learn more at 911GlassRescue.org.