Mariana Van Zeller visits Disney Parks for Earth Month | ourHOME | National Geographic

I'm Mariana Vanel, National Geographic's investigative journalist. I've traveled to the deepest corners of our world documenting stories with a global impact. This Earth Month, I'm headed to Walt Disney World Resort to spotlight their sustainability work and environmental initiatives to protect and restore the planet we call home.

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So this is the famous glass pulverizing machine. This is it! This is our glass pulverizer. It's a pretty simple machine actually. We load the glass here in the front, in the feed hopper, and it travels up the conveyor. Then, it drops down into a hammermill and it breaks the glass up. It actually files off the sharp edges—there are no sharp edges left. We're giving it a second life, which is also helping us reduce what we're having to mine and ship in. We're reusing material all the way around—it's just a good idea.

How much glass is actually being recycled here in terms of quantity? We've been estimating there's about 2,000 tons, about 4 million pounds across the property. So, are we going to see it work? Absolutely! Let's go around to the side before we can turn it on. Can I take some of it home? A little bag?

We'll get you something to take some with you.

At Fort Wilderness, we have this wonderful guest trail ride that comes through here. Because we're pulverizing the glass, we're able to take that material and reuse it right here on the property. So, there's pulverized glass here—there are no sharp edges, so it's safe for the horses. It really helps give the guest a connection between what they're recycling out on the campground and then how we're reusing it, giving them a connection back to the animals here at Fort Wilderness.

Oh wow! So, where to next?

This is sort of your pilot project right now. This is expanding beyond Fort Wilderness. We're stepping outside of Fort Wilderness and starting to look at how we can use this material in other places around the Walt Disney World Resort. Obviously, trails, parking lots, things like that. Can we use it in water runoff areas? We've kind of expanded the glass collection with catering and some of our Epcot partners.

We're going to head over to the Walt Disney World nurseries; that's where they grow a lot of the plants for the parks and resorts. They're currently using coquina in the base of those greenhouses. It shells essentially from different sea creatures that have deposited. We're going to see how they're using the smaller glass cullet as a cooc replacement. This is the first place—this is going to be the first use for it outside of Fort Wilderness.

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Yes, so what are these flowers we're looking at?

We're at the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival. All of these flowers that you see here were brought in from the nursery that we visited earlier, where they're starting to use that glass cullet now in those greenhouses.

That's [Music] amazing! And so guests can actually experience this full cycle of sustainability. It gives our guests a connection, so they're actually having an impact on the world around [Music] them.

Thank you so much! I so enjoyed my time with you.

Thank you for coming out and hearing our story. And now, I am leaving covered in pixie dust.

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