2 New Orleans students crushed millions of discarded bottles into recycled glass sand to fight coastal erosion; the result transformed Louisiana's sinking marshes by anchoring new grass and helping rebuild one of America's most vulnerable coastlines

Two New Orleans students saw a problem hiding in plain sight: discarded glass had little practical recycling value in their city, while Louisiana's coast desperately needed material to rebuild eroding wetlands. Their solution was to crush unwanted bottles into sand and gravel through Glass Half Full, the recycling operation they founded. Millions of pounds of glass have since been diverted from landfills, with the recycled material finding uses beyond ordinary recycling.