Glassphemy!

Since vacant lots can be magnets for broken glass, David Belt figured it made sense to turn one into a recycling center, reports Melena Ryzik in the New York Times (5/12/10). You may remember David as the guy who came up with Dumpster pools last summer. He got the idea for his latest project, Glassphemy!, while participating in a panel on urban renewal and the discussion turned to a problematic vacant lot that was littered with shattered glass.

An audience member stood up and said, "Well, I like breaking glass; let’s just make it a place where you break glass." So, David went about turning vacant-lot glass-breaking into a happening. He built "a 20-foot-by-30-foot clear box, with high walls made of steel and bulletproof glass" (image). There’s a high platform on one end from which people can hurl bottles at people on a lower platform on the other side, who are protected by the bullet-proof glass. As the "bottles smash fantastically, artfully designed lights flash, and no one is harmed" (video).

The installation cost David about $5,000. "Recycling’s so boring," he explains. "We tried to make it a little bit more exciting … People just want to smash things." He’s also running a contest in ReadyMade magazine, where readers submit recycling ideas for the glass. He’s already looking into pulverizing the glass into sand for a beer garden at the site — which is in Brooklyn, but the exact location is a secret. But if you send a good recycling idea to David’s website, Macro-Sea dot-com, you might "earn an invitation with the address."