Don't Trash Glass
Don’t Trash Glass Initiative
Don’t Trash Glass is a recycling initiative of Keep Arizona Beautiful in partnership with GlassKing Recovery & Recycling, an Arizona-based glass collection/processing company.
Crescent Crown Distributing is the major founding sponsor for the program.
“Crescent Crown Distributing has a strong commitment to sustainability,” says Joe Cotroneo, EVP at Crescent Crown, “and the Don’t Trash Glass initiative helps our customers safely and effectively remove glass from their waste stream and put all those bottles back into productive use.”
What is it?
The Don’t Trash Glass initiative is an easy-to-implement glass recycling service for local commercial glass users: restaurants, bars, hotels, casinos and other businesses, AND a powerful educational platform for showing the positive impacts of recycling glass.
The goal of the initiative is to divert glass from landfills; put glass back into productive use; create positive glass recycling habits; and demonstrate the beneficial economic, social and environmental impacts of single resource recycling.
The initiative began in January 2018 after assessing the impact of GlassKing clients who had begun participating in the pilot program during 2017. Their diversion rates were impressive and this early success inspired the KAZB/GlassKing collaboration on this program.
65 participating venues diverted
- 295,472 lbs. of glass in the 4th quarter of 2017
- 346,017 lbs. of glass in the 1st quarter of 2018
The Don’t Trash Glass initiative will expand the service to as many establishments as possible and use their stories to show the impact and raise public awareness.
How does it work?
- Contact either Keep Arizona Beautiful or GlassKing to learn how your establishment can get started. GlassKing provides the on-site recycling service. Keep Arizona Beautiful provides marketing and educational support to participating businesses, and creates opportunities for participants to share their success through print, video, and social media channels.
- A Don’t Trash Glass team visits every new venue and works with the manager and/or operations staff to set up the program: determining the best location for the glass collection bin, the number of slim jims a venue might need, and the pick-up schedule. Additionally, the team can provide staff training if needed, which includes safety tips and how to avoid contamination.
- Once a venue signs up for the program, KAZB follows up with marketing collateral to help the restaurant promote their participation in the program, to provide education to their customers about the scale of their impact, and to share ongoing promotional opportunities.
It’s all about impact!
A single restaurant or bar generates one to two tons of glass on average each month. Many restaurants are already sorting glass from their garbage as a safety precaution, but still end up dumping the glass in the trash.
The Don’t Trash Glass program enables venues to divert all that glass from a landfill. The glass goes into a glass-only bin and GlassKing picks it up weekly. Then it gets reused or repurposed for a wide variety of applications.
Don’t Trash Glass will divert thousands of tons of glass from landfills, reduce trash pick-up costs, and put this valuable resource back into productive use.
Don't Trash Glass Participants
KC = Kierland Commons
CFC = Chandler Fashion Center
BFP = Biltmore Fashion Park
SV = San Tan Village
- Bar North (KC)
- Shake Shack
- The Greene House
- BaseLine Pub
- BJS (CFC)
- Old Spaghetti Factory
- Blanco (BFP)
- True Food
- Zinburger
- Blue Wasabi (SV)
- Buffalo (CFC)
- CA Pizza Kitchen (CFC)
- Starbuck's (CFC)
- Central Wine
- Clever Koi
- Cheesecake (CFS)
- Cheesecake(BFP)
- CA Pizza Kitchen
- Club DownTown
- Cirq Nightclub
- Fairmont Princess
- Famous Daves (SV)
- Harkins Camelview
- Harkins Estrella
- Kona (CFC)
- Kona (SFS)
- Kona (SV)
- La Fonda
- Mortons (KC)
- PF Changs (KC)
- Phoenician Resort
- Postinos (KC)
- Mastros
- Season 52 (BFP)
- The Capitol Grille
- Sheraton Grand Resort
- Sir Vezas (CFS)
- Snooze (KC)
- The Mission
- Starbucks
- Spoke & Wheel
- Timo Wine Bar
- Barrio Queen - Stetson Drive
- The Herb Box
- Casablanca Rooftop Lounge
- Tempe Centerpoint
- Fat Tuesday
- Mellow Mushroom
- Pedal Haus
- PF Chang's
- Zipp's Sports Grill
- Handlebar
- Thirsty Lion (SFS)
- Thirsty Lion (SV)
- Gordon Biersch
- Tommy Bahamas (KC)
- Uncorked Wine Bar
- Westin Spa & Resort
- Whole Foods 20th
- Whole Foods Chandler
- Whole Foods Mayo
- Whole Foods Tatum
- Whole Foods Tempe
- Yard House