Posted on June 30, 2025
Louisiana has two problems: an eroding coastline and limited glass recycling. Engineer Franziska Trautmann is solving both by turning bottles into beach sand.
About Franziska Trautmann
Franziska Trautmann is a chemical engineer and the cofounder of New Orleans-based glass recycling company Glass Half Full. She has turned millions of pounds of glass into sand to be used for coastal restoration, disaster relief and construction in Louisiana and beyond. Backed by the National Science Foundation, her team has completed four coastal restoration projects and restored over an acre of coastline.
