April 3, 2023 — Glass Half Full, a startup that recycles household glass into sand and gravel for use in coastal restoration and eco-construction projects, took home top prizes in the annual IDEApitch competition at New Orleans Entrepreneur Week, which wrapped up over the weekend after six days of workshops, panels and live music.
Glass Half Full was founded in 2020 by then-Tulane University students Franziska Trautmann and Max Steitz. It is a member of the Villagex accelerator program in the Idea Village, the local startup incubator that produces NOEW.
The company edged out two fellow startups in the accelerator — Bomb Ass Fro and iCAN Technologies — because of its focus on a sustainable solution to one of the area’s most pressing problems, according to Idea Village CEO Jon Atkinson.