A bottle crushing system for breaking apart bottles into fragments includes an enclosure having an upper component containing region and a lower glass receptacle region separated from one another by a support panel. A crushing assembly includes a drive and a rotating crusher element operably connected thereto. The drive is disposed above the support panel, within the upper component containing region and the rotating crusher element is disposed below the support panel within the lower glass receptacle region. A chute assembly has an entrance opening in the enclosure for introducing bottles to the crushing system and traverses through an opening in the support panel. The chute system has a discharge at the crusher element that is positioned immediately above the rotational path of the crusher element. The chute system includes a pair of baffle element sets. An upper baffle element set is disposed immediately inside of the entrance opening and includes first and second flexible membranes having slits formed therein so as to define at least six flexible panels in the membrane. The sits are offset from one another. A lower baffle element set is disposed intermediate the entrance opening and the discharge and has slits formed therein so as to define at least six flexible panels in the membrane.