At the launch party for Ripple Glass last week, the company's CEO, Stacia Stelk, was already reveling in the up-start company's success.
Outside, next to one of the giant, purple recycling bins, Stelk and Andy Barton, vice president of sales for Deffenbaugh Industries, spoke excitedly.
Earlier in the week, the two had watched as one of the first collection bins thumped onto the pavement in a lot near the corner of 51st and Main streets. That was 10 a.m. on a Monday morning. By Thursday afternoon, the massive bin was already completely full.
That isn't the only indication that area residents are eager and willing to unload their hoarded glass to jump-start the new recycling effort.
When I spoke to Stelk yesterday, the initial influx of glass had only picked up. Last week, Ripple increased the number of glass recycling sites regionally from five to 30 -- and people weren't slow to take advantage.
By Thursday afternoon, the bin at 51st Street wasn't the only one that needed to be emptied. The bin in Lawrence, Kansas, was also full to the brim.
"The one we placed in Roeland Park, I looked in on Saturday and it was two-thirds full," Stelk said of another container that was placed last week. "Many of the other bins are nearly full today. Most of the first bins to go out are filling in four or five days of placement."
That's a lot of glass. Each bin, she says, hold eight tons -- more than 17,500 pounds -- of glass.
Which means, Ripple has collected more glass in a week than Kansas City's three drop-off sites see in a month. Not bad for the first 10 days.
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