Altman alum Dalton Smith decided to stay in New Orleans this spring after earning a Masters in Accounting from the Freeman School of Business. Not only does he work remotely for Credit Suisse, but last spring he also took on the role of Director of Financial Operations for Glass Half Full, a New Orleans-based recycling organization. Glass Half Full converts used glass into sand to be used for disaster relief and coastal restoration, among other causes. 

Dalton’s duties not only include monitoring the financial and accounting side of the business, but he also helps with the on-ground operations on collection days. He shared some info on the organization with us:

"Working to build GHF has been an incredibly rewarding experience and a great application of the skills I learned through Altman. We started GHF drive systematic change in recycling in Louisiana--the state which recycles the least in the entire country. Our process diverts glass from Louisiana landfills by recycling glass bottles into sand which is used for coastal restoration, disaster relief, eco-construction, soil-amendments, and more!

"It has been a rollercoaster for our team, with many long weeks and sleepless nights. We've been blown away by the support we've received and how fast everything has taken off. We started in a friend's backyard and now operate out of two warehouses, collecting over 60,000 pounds of glass each week!

"Earlier this fall, we launched a fundraiser to help us scale our operational capacity to meet the overwhelming demand for our free service. Please help us bring glass recycling to Louisiana by making a donation to our fundraiser or sharing the campaign — we really can’t do it without you!"

Glass Half Full is the first glass processing facility in Louisiana, and the first crowd-funded grassroots recycling facility in the world. Their fall fundraiser will help them expand their operations and reinvent the recycling system as we know it. Find out more about Glass Half Full and what they do on their website.