RIPPLE GLASS

Before Ripple Glass, Kansas Citians threw away 150 million pounds of perfectly good glass each and every year. To our dismay, this included millions of empty Boulevard beer bottles—lost forever, buried in local landfills.

Area businesses use nearly 100 million pounds of recycled glass annually, so why almost no local recycling? Because there was no nearby facility to process the glass. And why no local processor? Because, in classic chicken-and-egg fashion, there was no local recycling.

We finally got tired of being part of the problem. So, with the support of local companies and community organizations, we came up with a solution—Ripple Glass. Ripple’s state-of-the-art processing facility and innovative metro-wide collection system has given a big lift to glass recycling throughout Kansas City and the entire region. In 2018, 468,000 Kansas Citians used Ripple Glass drop-off sites, and over 150 local businesses participate in the business recycling program. We’re proud to report that Ripple Glass recycled roughly 175 million Boulevard bottles last year alone and, since its founding in 2009, over 1 billion!