As a producer of nearly 240,000 bottles of wine each year, Fox Run Vineyards knew they had to do more to keep glass out of area landfills.

Enter the Expelco GLSand Bottle Crusher: a compact machine designed to crush glass bottles into environmentally usable sand. Fox Run is the first winery in New York State to adopt and use this new technology.

The GLS Bottle Crusher can crush any clean glass container up to 2L in size within seconds. During busy fall weekends, Fox Run can go through 50+ cases of wine between the café and tasting room. When crushed, these bottles can fit into just a few 1-gallon buckets, a 90% reduction in overall volume. The resulting sand is soft to touch and safe to use on roadways, in parking lots, in gardens, or to spread throughout the vineyard.

“The machine itself is quiet, safe, and easy for our entire staff to use. It’s another step on the path to minimizing our impact on the environment, which is something we set goals for each and every year,” said Osborn.

Other steps on that path have included installing solar panels to operate on 100% self-generated energy, switching to compostable café ware, and planting pollinator sanctuaries throughout the vineyard. Fox Run is a participant in the New York Wine and Grape Foundation’s sustainable winery initiative, a pilot program being released later this year.

Fox Run will display samples of the crushed bottle sand in the tasting room, so consumers can see the machine’s impact firsthand. Osborn also welcomes any craft beverage producers interested in purchasing their own bottle crusher to see it in action at the winery.

“It’s my hope that all New York wineries will adopt this technology. It’s one of the best solutions out there for extended producer responsibility,” said Osborn.

The Expelco GLSand Bottle Crusher is available in over 80 countries and is used in a variety of industries, from hospitality to landscaping and construction.

Contact: Scott Osborn, President and Co-Owner
315-536-4616, [email protected]