Glassroots KY aims to test and measure whether crushed recycled glass can be used to restore depleted mangrove and seagrass populations in the Cayman Islands and as a soil amendment to create a fertile low-carbon footprint soils for growing food crops.

Through this study, we aim to demonstrate that waste streams such as glass and organic matter, which this island has in abundance, can be immensely more valuable when redirected towards wetland preservation and farming, thus helping to solve some of Cayman’s priority environmental concerns in a sustainable way.

The project work is broken into three main focus areas: Red mangroves, seagrass and farming. Read more about this in the below section:

Red mangroves:

Leverage Glass Half Full’s approach to create storm barriers, made of crushed recycled glass in biodegradable burlap bags along the mangrove coastline, creating a protected shallow area for mangrove rhizomes to grow and spread in.

Seagrass restoration:

Fill in boat strike areas of the North Sound with sunken burlap bags filled with CRG and monitor seagrass regrowth through photography at regular intervals.

Farming:

Research by OLIN Labs and Washington state reveals that replacing up to 50% of mined sand with crushed recycled glass and mixing it with mulch from locally sourced food waste can produce high performance soils with up to 67% reduction in carbon emissions and 48% reduction in water usage. In partnership with Beacon Farms, Glassroots KY will conduct in-greenhouse experiments to measure the effects on plant growth and crop quality of introducing crushed recycled glass as a soil amendment in the soil mix for different food crops.