Broken Arrow Glass Recycling Owner Shelby Kaye shows off one of her totes, which is a bin that is used to collect glass recycling. Kaye now offers curbside glass recycling pickup in Los Alamos. Photo by Kirsten Laskey/ladailypost.com

By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com

POJOAQUE – Broken Arrow Glass Recycling, located at the Art Station at 17715 U.S. 84/285 near Buffalo Thunder Casino Resort, is doing something that isn’t done anywhere else in Northern New Mexico. It is reusing, recycling glass, and selling the products created from this endeavor.

“Essentially, we have created a way to process glass material locally, which is not happening in Northern New Mexico,” Owner Shelby Kaye said.

The business, which Kaye founded in 2021, is not only breaking ground on new territory for the region, but it is expanding services. Broken Arrow Glass Recycling serves Taos and Santa Fe but now it will also travel to Los Alamos. The second Wednesday of the month, Kaye and her employee travel up to Los Alamos to offer curbside pickup of recycled glass for residents and businesses.

First-time customers can simply leave their rinsed-out glass bottles and jars in some kind of container outside on their property to be collected between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. A bin will be delivered at the first collection that customers can use for their glass recycling. The glass can still have labels. Caps and corks should be removed but can be placed in the bin for recycling, too. It is important there isn’t any spoiled contents or mold in the glass because it will just be thrown away.

Customers can choose a range of services from $25 for once-a-month pickup to $12.50 for every other month. They can select up to three bins for their glass. Kaye said people may share pickup times and bins, explaining that it’s “better for the environment and the community” if recycling for multiple residents is picked up from one location.

What happens next, Kaye explained, is the glass is emptied in their truck and transported back to their warehouse. There, the glass is sorted by color into different bright blue bins before being fed to a glass crusher machine. At the very start of her business, Kaye said she was using a kitchen sink disposal to grind up the glass but was able to acquire a machine that is manually fed the glass to chomp up into bits. Earlier this year, Kaye purchased at an auction a glass grinder that was originally owned by Los Alamos County. With this machine, the glass is deposited into a hopper, slid through a sluice-like tube and then grinded into particles. The grinded up material is sifted to remove sand and bits of labels and remaining particles are either refined again to make a fine-grained sand or remains in larger pieces, which look like bejeweled gravel. The uses for these materials can include landscaping or filling bags to prevent floods and erosion, Kaye said. Glass pieces are also mixed with concrete to make anything from a cup to a countertop.

Besides creating glass aggregate, Kaye upcycles glass to make drinking glasses, candle holders and other decorative pieces. These items are for sale in a small gallery located in her warehouse, which is open by appointment. People can email brokenarrowglassrecycling@gmail.com to schedule one. To make these pieces, labels are removed. A “hot pop” is performed, in which a torch is used to pop the bottle’s top off and the lip is polished, the glass is placed in a kiln and then the glass is fire polished to create a glossy finish.

“It’s a pretty labor-intensive process,” Kaye said.

She estimates it takes about three days to process 50 gallons of glass material. To continue the operations, Kaye is looking for help. A fundraiser is established to purchase more machinery and be able to hire more staff. Additionally, Kaye received funding from the New Mexico Small Business Administration for the Los Alamos National Laboratory to test her sand to see if it is viable soil for native plants. Kaye is going into uncharted territory for Northern New Mexico. She explained the region does not do any glass recycling because there is no market for it. What ends up happening is a portion of glass is transported to Colorado for recycling – the material is sold to a fiberglass company as well as the Coors Brewing Company. The majority, however, is thrown in the landfill. Since it can take up to a billion years for glass to biodegrade, Kaye said she became interested in an alternative.

“…there are needs we have in New Mexico and this material is one thing we can utilize to meet those needs,” she said.

It is also a chance to use her artistic skills. Kaye said she went to school for studio arts and then stumbled onto glass work.

Kaye said she enjoys drinking Kombucha tea and began using the empty bottles for her art. Then, Honeymoon Brewery in Santa Fe contacted her about upcycling their empty bottles into drinking glasses.

“One thing I am interested in is when art serves a needed function,” she said. “I’m very happy I was able to figure out, creatively, what we need in this point in time.”

Despite all the challenges that come from forging a new business, despite all the long hours and hard work, Kaye said she really enjoys operating a glass recycling business.

“I do it for the Mother – Mother Earth,” she said.

Kaye explained she is a mother herself – she has two children – so it is important to create a sustainable environment.

For more information, or to subscribe for glass pick up services, visit brokenarrowglassrecycling.com

Once the glass is collected at Broken Arrow Glass Recycling, it is separated into barrels by color. Photo by Kirsten Laskey/ladailypost.com

The glass crusher machine, formerly owned by Los Alamos County, was recently purchased by Broken Arrow Glass Recycling at an auction. Photo by Kirsten Laskey/ladailypost.com

The interior of Broken Arrow Glass Recycling, which houses both its up-cycling operation and a small art gallery. Photo by Kirsten Laskey/ladailypost.com

Broken Arrow Glass Recycling’s workstations. Photo by Kirsten Laskey/ladailypost.com

Broken Arrow Glass Recycling’s gallery, which features up cycled items. The gallery is open by appointment only. To make one, email brokenarrowglassrecycling@gmail.com. Photo by Kirsten Laskey/ladailypost.com