MB business gets groovy with glass recycling

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) - According to DoSomething.org, every month Americans throw out enough recyclable glass bottles and jars to fill a skyscraper. It's quite a statistic, but more and more people are looking to change their habits and take something once viewed as waste and recycling it, so it can be repurposed.

Myrtle Beach based Groovy Green Glass is based on the old adage "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". In fact, without recycling, they wouldn't even have a business.

What started as a 'green' idea for Shawn and Deana Vail has turned into a business venture for the husband and wife team.

"Thinking about what to do with all these empty bottles and uh, you know, thought we can cut these down and make glasses out of them," Shawn Vail recalled about starting their business.

Deana saw glasses made from wine bottles and wanted a set for her own kitchen.

"He looked at me and said 'Uh, I could make that,'" Deana remembers Shawn saying.

"That's kinda how this all got started. He just started making them."

They talked about it with friends and before long, had an army of restaurant managers offering cases of empty wine and liquor bottles; glass that would otherwise be piling up in our landfills.

It started out simple enough.

"[I] started playing and cutting," Shawn says, "I started out by hand [with the] sandpaper, you go through a lot of sandpaper and a long time to get it right!"

Now, it's a streamlined process that involves heavy equipment.

"You just have to look at the bottle and see what it says, cut it where it makes the most sense," Shawn says about the process of repurposing the bottles. "Once you get it cut down, there's a multi-stage polishing process to take all the chips and cracks, make it look nice."

The Vail's can make many different, useable products out of glass bottles. Deana says they've made mini drinking glasses from Grey Goose bottles, a candy dish from a Gran Marnier bottle and a Frangelico bottle became a vase. They've also made glass jewelry and keychains with the extra corks from wine bottles.

Deana say the family business is even causing a change in thinking from those close to them.

"Our really good friends that live next door, they have started buying wine specifically for bottles, so yes, you can start to look at things differently when you realize there's gonna be another purpose for it."

Another purpose for the glass and possibly another line of work for the Vail's, who's green business, could soon outgrow their garage.

Deana and Shawn said they are willing to pick up more glass from local restaurants and bars and urge anyone who would like to recycle their glass to give them a call.

The Vail's sell their line of Groovy Green Glass products on their Facebook page and at Yoga in Common in Market Common.