Glass with Class
Discarded bottles become works of art in the hands of Bozeman’s Jennifer Pearson.
Recycled Coke® Bottle Glass window pane displayed
in botanical conservatory.
Glass Root’s display featuring chardonnay, beer, clear and tortoise (mixed) wine bottle glass set in recycled steel frame.
Clear wine bottles used to accent recycled metal sink in a charmingly eclectic guesthouse.
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THE CONTENTS OF THE GIN, VODKA, SAKE, AND BEER BOTTLES HAVE BEEN CONSUMED. And fortunately, their jewel-colored vessels — sorted, cleaned, crushed and cooked in a solar-powered kiln—have become an artist’s medium for sustainably-produced tiles and glass installations. Glass Roots — founded in 2007 by Jennifer Pearson and Courtney King — was not only a brilliant idea but one that was timely, as well.
Along with thousands of fellow Bozemanites, Pearson and King were concerned about the town’s faltering glass recycling program. For years, earnest environmentalists had been dropping off everything from mustard jars to Moët bottles for curbside pickup and community bin collection, only to find out that their efforts had been in vain: much of the glass ended up in landfills. Why? If a wholesale recycler can’t find a buyer for used glass, it’s cheaper to dispose of it locally than to truck it thousands of miles away. Glass is heavy, and fuel is pricey, thus creating a tricky situation.
So, the two savvy, eco-minded women put their heads together. They were determined to find a use for the mounds of glass lying dormant in local landfills. Pearson — a fan of William McDonough and Michael Braunagh’s book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, was inspired by the authors’ term, “upcycle,” which refers to the use of waste materials to make something utilitarian. She couldn’t get the word and the possibilities it implied out of her mind. The result? In the case of Glass Roots, the process of upcycling also resulted in something aesthetically pleasing: a silk purse from a sow’s ear, if you will.
Glass. All that glass. Sapphire-colored vodka bottles. Sake vessels the color of tourmaline. Beer bottles in varying shades of amber. There was an innate beauty in that garbage but what, the women pondered, can we do about it? After numerous hours of thinking, planning, research and ruminating, the ah-ha moment happened:
Tiles! Pearson and King agreed that tiles were something nearly every household needed and they also realized there wasn’t any competition: No one was making glass
tiles that were 100 percent sustainable and benefiting the community.
  
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