LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) — At THV11, we care about our community. And that includes keeping Arkansas beautiful and sustainable.
That’s why we have made it a mission educate people on the need for proper recycling with our “Recycle Right” campaign in partnership with Regional Recycling District. One way we are committed to helping is through education about proper recycling and recycling opportunities.
One of those opportunities is taking place at a brand new, multi-million dollar facility in Little Rock that hopes to make a major impact on the state's glass recycling. ACE Glass hopes to encourage other companies to “go green” and make Arkansas more sustainable.
ACE Glass started as a construction company. But now it has grown into an innovative, glass recycling hub. ACE Glass owner, Courtney Little, said he was inspired to make a change in glass recycling when he learned how the process worked.
“In central Arkansas, we do single stream recycling where we combine glass, paper, plastic and aluminum in the same bucket and that's inefficient for glass because the glass doesn't make it through or get utilized,” he said. “It harms the rest of the stream and contaminates it.”
He said that right now, central Arkansas recycles around 200 tons of glass each year and that’s a problem.
“If you scale that against other cities in the region, we should be producing something like 8,000 tons a year,” Little said. “Glass is something that should be or could be infinitely recycled, but it is thrown in the landfill and sits there forever.”
To make a difference, he is working to collect glass curbside and also collect recycled restaurant and industrial glass products. His facility will take care of processing, de-labeling, cleaning and prepare the glass for a final product. He hopes to make a product here in Arkansas with that recycled content that would bring tax dollars and more jobs to the state.
Additionally, while he is working to make the entire state more sustainable, he’s already taken the initiative to make his facility a model for “going green.” ACE Glass buildings are focused on using natural light and they use only LED light bulbs.
His downtown facility also has its own solar farm behind the building. That enables the entire facility to run completely on solar power. It’s something they are hoping will be a model for other companies who want to invest in solar.
“We’re hoping other people will see that you can put a solar system on any kind of company or any kind of house and within reason, it will pay itself back,” he said. “You can do the right thing at the same time.”
The new ACE Glass facility is still under construction but will open by late April or May. Little said he hopes to provide 20 to 40 jobs in the facility’s manufacturing side and 100 or more jobs when the recycling expands past the pilot program in Maumelle.
Long-term, Little hopes to provide 300-400 new jobs across the state with the recycling efforts. He also plans to work to better educate people on proper recycling techniques.