US: Business gives wine bottles new uses

(USAToday) - Entrepreneur Ray DelMuro is counting on Phoenix-area wine drinkers to help him grow his business and reach a goal of keeping 10 million wine bottles out of landfills.

DelMuro, 35, founder of Refresh Glass LLC, is in his fifth year of turning wine bottles from restaurants and hotels into glasses, candle holders, vases and planters.

So far he has reused nearly 330,000 wine bottles, transforming them into 100,000 glasses, all with slight variations is size, weight and color.

"Each of those glasses has a story," said DelMuro, noting that the wine bottle might have been shared by people celebrating or drowning their sorrows. "It's not like these are Chinese mass-produced glasses."

Refresh Glass has a long way to go in reaching its goal of 10 million bottles, but steady growth since 2008 and a recent infusion of investment capital should speed things up.

Mac6, a Tempe-based business incubator, bought a 17 percent equity stake in Refresh Glass and is providing the company with 6,000 square feet of space in a Tempe warehouse and business-support services. The financial details were not disclosed.