A 36-foot glass pine tree will grow this month in Wisconsin with the help of participants who will string melted recycled glass into a sparkling structure. “The goal is, create an environment where people can explore, people can see something they’ve never seen before, and just enjoy themselves in an incredibly inspirational atmosphere,” said Rob Elliott, producer of the project. Since mid-November, thousands of pounds of recycled glass have been collected throughout Illinois and Wisconsin from the public, bars, restaurants and hotels. In its third year, the event takes place across two weekends starting Dec. 6 at Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. Attendees can also take glass art classes, shop at a holiday market or participate in a woodworking demonstration. Jason Mack, a glass artist based in central Illinois, will melt all the crushed glass to about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit until it’s the consistency of honey. Then, attendees will pour the liquid glass over a spinning steel structure during the six days of the event. On the last day, a hand-blown glass star tops the tree, bringing the height to 36 feet. It’s about 10 feet higher than the next tallest glass tree in the world, located in Murano, Italy. The annual holiday event isn’t just an art demonstration. It’s also a fundraiser for the nonprofit Mack Glass Communities, whose goal is to teach kids about recycled glass art while setting up a year-round program for glass recycling. Only about 3,000 pounds of glass is needed for the actual tree, and the rest gets donated to a glass recycler who will sell it back to the bottle-making industry. Last year, the project collected over 17 tons of glass. Community art organizers and visitors plan to use recycled glass to build a 36-foot tree in December. This is the third year the event has been held at Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. (The World’s Tallest Glass Tree) The majority of glass in the U.S. ends up in landfills, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where it could take up to 1 million years to decompose. “A glass bottle in the ground will last a million years, but you could take the same bottle, crush it, melt it, and make a bottle again a million times without losing any properties,” Mack said. Mack said it’s not that bars, restaurants and consumers don’t want to recycle their glass. “Nobody has taken the time to set up the infrastructure to get the glass from the bar to the recycler,” he said. Mack and Elliott have partnered with organizations such as the Glass Recycling Foundation to come up with better ways to connect all the dots of collection, transportation and recycling. Their hope with the continued success of the glass tree project is to also inspire the glass art community to see the beauty of using recycled materials. Most glass artists will not touch recycled glass because it’s not the most compatible with the vibrant colors that people often associate with this medium, Mack said. “It’s a totally different animal as far as the viscosity of it and the breakdown, you know, the makeup of it,” Elliott said. “But still glass at the same time.” The idea of recycled glass trees has roots in Mack and Elliott’s college years at Illinois State University. Studio glass is expensive, so the pair put a garbage can at a local bar to collect empty bottles. They washed the glass at a car wash, crushed it all, then tossed the material into a furnace. Mack experimented with large spun glass structures which later inspired a tree design. After this year’s glass tree at Yerkes Observatory is complete, the thousands of glass strings that make up the tree will be broken down, melted and spun into 6-inch models. They’ll be sold at next year’s glass tree build as commemorative ornaments. The event will take place from Dec. 6 to Dec. 8, then Dec. 13 to Dec. 15. Glass art classes, steel sculpting, a holiday market, food and drink will be part of the family friendly event. “I think it’s important that everybody comes with a little bit of curiosity and leaves with a little bit of inspiration,” Elliott said.