About BottleChange

About Us

BottleChange was founded in 2011 by Jeff and Amanda Randall, an earth-minded Walla Walla, Wash., couple with a vision to challenge the way we see glass waste. This vision resulted from the discovery that, despite being home to more than 100 wineries and a burgeoning restaurant industry, the city of Walla Walla has no glass recycling program in place. The Randalls have actively sought a solution instead of fixating on the problem by recruiting their friends in the food and wine industry to support the up-cycling cause. They collect wine and liquor bottles from local bars, tasting rooms, and restaurants, and up-cycle them into tumblers, vases, candle holders, and even pendants and earrings. All the BottleChange household wares and accent pieces are designed, cut, and polished by hand, right in the Randall’s own at-home workshop. So not only does BottleChange feature homemade and handcrafted items, they source the materials locally, and right here in the United States.

At BottleChange, we welcome the exciting challenge this venture has offered us: we get to do something that matters; something that has a positive impact on the environment, while also inspiring friends and family to rethink their resource consumption.

Up-Cycling and Re-Using Glass is Important

Up-cycling and re-using glass is especially important because it never wears out and can, therefore, be recycled, up-cycled, and re-used indefinitely...as in, forever! This is also the frustrating aspect of glass recycling: Americans throw away enough glass each week to fill a 1,350-foot building. While the rate of decomposition for glass is not absolutely certain, it is estimated to take a modern glass bottle approximately 4,000 years to break down, and much longer if placed in a landfill.

What is Up-Cycling?

The principle behind up-cycling is two-fold: use what you’ve got, and turn it into something more practical or beautiful than it was before. Different than recycling, where everyday items must be treated or processed in a plant before they’re even suitable for re-use, up-cycling is simply a new word for re-purposing. Up-cycling requires us to look at the items around us creatively and resourcefully so we can save them from the waste bin, save landfill space, and also lesson the production of new materials.