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Steve Cherry, CEO and co-founder of Bottles & Wood, sits in the display room at the company’s headquarters in Las Vegas on Friday, Aug. 24, 2012.
By Jackie Valley (contact) 
Monday, Aug. 27, 2012 | 2 a.m.
Products made by Bottles & Wood are on display at their headquarters in Las Vegas on Friday, Aug. 24, 2012.
Tucked in a warehouse a mile from the Las Vegas Strip, a handful of employees cut, grind, sand and polish glass — turning tourists' trash into treasure.
It's the business of bottles, and there's certainly no shortage in Las Vegas. The Strip's 24-hour party cycle sends scores of empty liquor, wine and beer bottles to the trash, much of it destined for burial at a landfill.
The demise of this perfectly good glass troubled Steve Cherry, founder of Bottles & Wood, a new Las Vegas-based company that repurposes discarded alcohol bottles.
"The last thing we should be doing with these bottles is crushing it and filling a landfill," he said. "That does nothing for anyone."
His business idea didn't start in Las Vegas, though. A Southern California native, Cherry began repurposing glass water bottles to make candleholders for a friend's restaurant. Customers approved of the new decor and asked where to buy it.
A sudden demand for the unique glassware got Cherry, a former software executive, thinking: Could this little side business be the start of something greater?
"I was like a shop guy when I was a kid," he said. "Never thought I was going to make a living at it."
Fast forward to July. That's when Cherry moved his burgeoning business into warehouse space with a view of the Strip on the west side of Interstate 15. He pays 40 cents a square foot to rent the space and, so far, employs a dozen people.
"There are more liquor bottles coming out of this one-mile Strip than in Southern California," Cherry said, explaining his rationale for moving to Las Vegas. "It's an enormous anomaly."
In a sense, his business model emulates the actual recycling process: He takes unwanted glass bottles from Las Vegas establishments, repurposes them and sells the new products back to wholesalers, tourists and locals. His glassware, ranging in price from $7.50 to $50 per piece, can be bought online or in gift shops.
Have a favorite liquor brand? There's probably a product made from it. Drinking glasses made from Grey Goose vodka bottles line one display shelf. Across the way, there's a light fixture featuring glass from a Jack Daniel's whiskey bottle. Other products include candleholders, candy bowls, wine tumblers and jewelry.
Cherry said his company was pursuing trademark licensing agreements with major liquor brands.
"We don't put any logos on anything we do," he said. " We just take existing product and repurpose it."
The "wood" part of the company name refers to a similar venture in California's wine country. The company's San Francisco factory takes old wine barrels and creates products, such as cheese trays and cutting boards.
In Las Vegas, Bottles & Wood has received discarded bottles from the Mob Bar, Bar + Bistro, Triple George and Krave, to name a few, Cherry said. He's working with Strip properties but can't yet disclose their names.
It's an opportunity Cherry calls a "win-win-win" for all involved. Bottles & Wood pays establishments 10 cents to 50 cents per bottle of liquor or specialty beer, he said.
"The hotels pay by the ton to have their glass hauled away," he said. "So if we take away a ton a week, it's less money they pay."
Cherry also views his new company as a way to make an impact in Nevada, a state known for its scarce environmental laws. He hopes to offer tours of the Las Vegas factory to school groups.
The 58-year-old admits his new venture is a far cry from software company boardrooms — and the ocean, for that matter. He's an avid sailor.
"I thought it was time for me to give back to the community," he said. "Doing software is horribly financially rewarding and empty in every other sense of job satisfaction."
Just don't ask about his favorite drink. It's water, he says, laughing as he looks at all the repurposed alcohol bottles surrounding him.
"I'm not a hard liquor drinker," he said. "I do enjoy my tequila once in a while."
If there were a like button on articles I'd give this a thumbs up =)
The coke glasses are very preety and verry exxpensive looking from Ittally.
Too bad it's not his intelligence or hard work that built that company which now employees a dozen. Somebody else did. I suggest Jackie Valley contact President Obama and really find out who built this company and interview them.
Mr. Delahunty,
You are twisting the president's words. He does not give credit others for entrepreneurial ideas. What he does say is that those with the intelligence to come up with an idea and the drive to implement it, would not have the infrastructure to conduct their business. It is all the rest of us who helped this gentleman because we pay taxes that built the roads he needs to access his sources, the communication network, etc. Please, give us all some credit for not being so stupid as to not understand what the president was saying. It is those of you who twist his words or fail to grasp the meaning that might have the intellectual shortfall.
iwonder, the government does not build infrastructure, period. You are correct they use funds provided by those of who pay taxes and then the government hires private sector contractors to do the actual building. So they neither fund nor build anything....we the people do.
I heard the presidents speech in full, and it was not out of context. He resents individual success. He tries to punish success every opportunity he has.
I own a few small companies, my question is if I didn't build my companies then why am I being taxed like I did? All I want is the president to find the people responsible by building my companies and tax them accordingly instead of me.
iwonder, I suppose this is a conversation for another story. Let's agree that Steve Cherry has built a pretty cool company and I think this is a great profile on a new small business. I assume you, like myself wish him luck with this business and any future endeavors.
My hat's off to him and his gang !!
Is there no glass recycling? Good for this guy and his company!
It said at the start of the article that the bottles are headed for the landfill. Don't these big casino's have a recycling program or the city of Las Vegas for that matter.
Cherry's new business was built on an idea that he had taken from a San Diego woman who has successfully brought her business to Las Vegas before he arrived in town. The original and proven successful BottleHood since 2009 that has been doing business since 2011 with Strip Hotels, sits two blocks from Cherry's business that is not even a couple of months old.
I commend him. However after looking at the gallery I see some blatent safety violations. He would be wise to address them before his success ends as quickly as it started.