Making Glass Hearts from Empty Bottles
glass | hearts | mexico | recycling | resorts
Trees decorated with colorful glass heart ornaments have always greeted guests at the four all-inclusive Pueblo Bonito beach resorts and Quivira Golf Club in Los Cabos. It’s a heartwarming tradition that starts with empty bottles. Pueblo Bonito guests go through two tons of beverage bottles a week.
Instead of creating a trash problem, Pueblo Bonito's empties are taken to the Baja village of El Arenal to the San Miguel Glass Factory where glass art is a way of life. Every week, thousands of bottles are color sorted and crushed into colorful bits before entering hand-built ovens heated to 2,000º F. 
When globs of molten glass leave the ovens they're skillfully blown into shapes by craftsmen. Every month, more than 1,000 glass art pieces leave the factory to be displayed at Pueblo Bonito, completing a recycling process that connects guests with Mexican culture and invites them to take a piece of Pueblo Bonito’s heart back home.
