Alfred University graduate opens glass straw manufacturing business in Alfred Incubator Works

Incubator Works, the business development facility located on state Route 244 in the Town of Alfred, recently acquired a new start-up tenant: Glass Lab, founded by Aiden LaCourse, a 2021 graduate of Alfred University’s Inamori School of Engineering and currently a student in the University’s College of Business.

Glass Lab manufactures glass drinking straws and currently is working on manufacturing one thousand straws for Alfred University, which plans to use the straws as gifts and mementoes of the University, according to LaCourse.

LaCourse says the straws are hardened in a process that involves dipping the glass material in a molten solution of potassium nitrate. Sodium ions in the glass are exchanged with larger potassium ions, and the surrounding molecular material undergoes a compressive strengthening as it cools.

Additionally, LaCourse says, the glass is tempered to withstand sharp changes in external temperatures, so that the straw may be cleaned in household dishwashers without fracturing.

“My glass straws will be the strongest straws on the market,” he says.

As a material for sipping straws, LaCourse further notes glass is superior to plastic and cardboard in that it does not impart a secondary taste to the drinking fluid. And it can be re-used, he says, eliminating the future discarding of cardboard and plastic waste into the environment.

LaCourse is developing a laser etching process for personalizing his company’s straws. Additionally, he hopes to develop a line of colored straws, “swirly” straws, and straws that are made of a glass material that destroys bacteria on its surface. Glass Lab currently manufactures only a standard eight-inch-long straw with a width of approximately five-eighths of an inch.

LaCourse is a native of Newcomb, NY, located north of Lake George. He is the nephew of William LaCourse, retired Alfred University Professor of Glass Science, and Patricia LaCourse, a retired Alfred University librarian.

As a graduate student in Alfred University’s college of business, LaCourse is studying business administration, a subject he finds particularly useful these days. “A lot of the things I’ve been doing with Glass Lab have been going right along with what I’ve been learning in the classroom,” he says. “It’s been extremely beneficial.”

LaCourse also is working on additional glass-based projects that he hopes can be developed for large-scale manufacturing. Together with Professor LaCourse and Alfred University Professor of Glass Science Alexis Clare, he is working on a project that repurposes used glass for agriculture fertilizer. The glass can be designed to gradually release nutrients into soil over a period of time, with one result being a reduced run-off of fertilizer into upstate streams and lakes.