New Zealand has opened a new glass-sorting facility in Tauranga, which will help to divert about 3,000 tonnes of glass from going into landfill each year. The facility will not only accept bottles and jars, but also flat glass coming from windows and doors.
A glass-sorting facility opened by Environment Minister Amy Adams in Tauranga, New Zealand, on 4 September will help to divert about 3,000 tonnes of glass from going into landfill each year. The facility received about NZD 47,000 for the project from the Government’s waste disposal levy allocated to Tauranga City Council.
“This project is a good example of a council using its waste disposal levy funding to work with business on a project that will benefit the local community and reduce waste,” Ms. Adams says.
“Tauranga is helping lead the way in waste minimization and resource efficiency across the country.”
In addition to accepting glass bottles and jars, Te Maunga will also start accepting flat glass, including from windows and doors, which will be sorted and stored before it is then sent to other facilities to be recycled.
The flat glass will be recycled into new products such as insulation, and the glass bottles and jars will be used to make new containers.
More than 80% of the funding for the project came from the Tauranga City Council’s allocation of the waste disposal levy. The facility for Auckland based flat glass recyclers 5R Solutions is jointly funded by Tauranga City Council, the Glass Packaging Forum and EnviroWaste.
The Glass Packaging Forum, an industry member-based, accredited product stewardship scheme for encouraging glass recycling in New Zealand contributed NZD 7,635.
The levy for waste disposed of at landfill is to help communities and businesses develop initiatives that increase reuse, recovery and recycling, and decrease waste to landfill.
More than NZD 76 million has been collected throughout the country via the levy since it was established in 2009.