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Try landscaping your Las Cruces yard with crushed glass

LAS CRUCES >> Some Las Cruces residents have green yards year-round. The green stuff isn't grass, it's glass.

Jeff Anderson, a Cooperative Extension agent, uses crushed glass as "top dressing" in his yard. It's part of his low water use plan. Anderson is a stickler for botanicals that thrive on very little water in our southern New Mexico environment.

"Through simple evapotranspiration, we lose about 90 inches of water every year in this part of the world. The crushed glass acts as a mulch, slowing the evaporation of moisture from the soil," Anderson said.

Courtesy photo It looks like snow! When crushed, clear glass looks white. Crushed brown, green, and clear glass is available at the SCSWA Recycling Yard at 2855 W. Amador Ave.

Crushed glass is available free from the South Central Solid Waste Authority (SCSWA) Recycling Yard at 2855 W. Amador, which has now collected and crushed tons of green, brown, and clear glass bottles and jars. The bottles are dropped off by residents, the SCSWA crushes them, and then offers the colored cullet and glass sand back to the community free for landscaping, artistic and entrepreneurial purposes .

A bin is also available for blue glass, but very little blue glass is brought in by residents.

Anderson has hauled about 20,000 pounds of the glass cullet and sand to his home and used all three available colors in his yard. He notes the clear glass, when crushed, looks a lot like white sand or snow. "The white reflects the heat, so it's especially good to use as a soil topping in container gardening," Anderson said.

Patrick Peck, director of the SCSWA, explains, "Residents are dropping off a little more than 3 tons of glass bottles and jars every week. We have crushed about 39 tons to date, and put the cullet and glass sand out for residents to pick up at no charge."

Glass does not go into your blue bin with mixed recyclables; glass bottles and jars may be dropped off at two sites:

• SCSWA Recycling Yard at 2855 W. Amador Ave. (open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday & Sunday)

• Recycling Drop Off Center outside the Old Foothills Landfill at 555 S. Sonoma Ranch Blvd (open 24 hours a day)

Crushed glass is available free in bins in the SCSWA Recycling Yard; residents can pick up as much as they want seven days a week.

Green Connections is submitted by the South Central Solid Waste Authority, managing solid waste, recyclables, and fighting illegal dumping for residents and businesses in the city and county. You can reach the SCSWA at 575-528-3800 or visit www.TheScrappyPages.com