The last time you dropped a glass bottle or jar into a recycle bin, did you imagine it could be used for roads, golf courses or walking trails for animals?
As part of a pilot program, Disney is collecting glass placed in recycle bins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground.
This glass is then transferred into a bin connected to a glass pulverizer. With the flip of a switch, glass travels up a conveyor belt where it is then crushed by multiple small hammers before being sorted through a large mesh screen for bigger, gravel-sized pieces or a smaller mesh screen for finer, sand-like material.
Within 30 seconds, a sauce jar or beverage bottle can turn into a beautiful, soft-sand mix!
This pulverizer can process up to 2,000 pounds of glass per hour. So, a full ton can go through this machine every hour and be converted into sand and gravel instead of being routed to a landfill.
This work is just one example of the ways The Walt Disney Company is aiming to lead the way in protecting the planet with their environmental goals by 2030 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, conserve water, achieve zero waste to landfills, further reduce single-use plastics and emissions, and expand renewable energy efforts.
At Fort Wilderness, Disney use this material to fill in holes on gravel roads and on the horseback riding trails. The pulverizer processes the glass in a way that removes any sharp edges, which makes it safe for animals to walk on. And, it actually creates less dust on the trails, which makes a better experience for everyone!
In the near future, Disney is planning to use this material for many other uses across Walt Disney World, including roadbeds, golf course bunkers, filtration systems, sandbags and drainage improvements, to name a few. It may even be used in recreation areas and in non-structural concrete like sidewalks and tennis courts.
