Huntsville company that turns used glass into countertops running short on cash

A Huntsville company that's become a popular outlet for people looking to recycle used glass may be closing.

Alabama Glass Recyclers President Lania Rivamonte said the firm recently laid off its 15 employees and needs about $300,000 in operating capital to stay in business.

Launched as Green Mountain Glass in June 2010, the company turns old bottles and jars into stylish glass countertops and landscape cover.

It was recently chosen by the U.S. Green Building Council to supply the countertops for what is being billed as the nation's most sustainable home near Fort Walton Beach, Fla.

"There's such great business potential," Rivamonte said Friday, "but we just have not been able to get any investors.

"We've been looking for quite a while."

Over the past year, the company has collected an estimated 560 tons of used glass from 63 Huntsville-area businesses, including Rosie's Cantina, Mellow Mushroom, Finnegan's Pub and EarthFare. It also operates 14 public drop-off sites.

Rivamonte said the firm is in the process of removing all its collection bins.

"Businesses are upset because their customers have come to rely on it," she said. "But we literally cannot continue to pick it up."

People who still want to recycle their used glass can drive it to Allied Waste's sorting facility off Triana Boulevard in southwest Huntsville, she said.

Glass was removed from the local curbside recycling program in 1995, but Allied keeps bins for clear, green and brown glass in its parking lot. The company admitted last year that it misled customers by incinerating glass rather than trucking it to a recycling facility in Atlanta.

For the past year, Allied has given all its glass to Alabama Glass Recyclers.

Allied is aware of the company's financial problems and hopes to find another market for the glass, said Blaine Ellzey, operations manager for Allied's Huntsville hauling division.

The next-closest glass recycling facility is Strategic Materials in suburban Atlanta.

"We've been working with Strategic trying to come up with an alternative solution," Ellzey said Friday.

Rivamonte said Alabama Glass, which she co-owns with John Baker, Charlie Matthews and Terry Smith, needs an immediate infusion of cash for a water filtration system and other production equipment at its Meridian Street facility.

The company has reached out to the Huntsville Angel Network and others, she said.

In the meantime, Rivamonte's husband and grandson have stepped in to make the remaining countertops that the company has promised.

One is earmarked for a new Tommy's Pizza opening soon in south Huntsville.