Sao Tome et Principe

In São Tomé and Príncipe, a glass bottle can become sand again.

Glass is made from melted sand. Here, the process runs in reverse: old bottles are sorted and crushed into grains of different sizes. Taking sand from the coast is forbidden, and the country has no factory that can make new glass from old. Instead, the finest material replaces ordinary sand in building materials.

On Príncipe, a cooperative takes care of the glass. Some of it is remelted and shaped into beads, bracelets and other jewellery, giving women on the island an income of their own.

Sand becomes glass. Glass becomes sand again.