Glass container maker, O-I New Zealand (O-I NZ), hosted an education program for glass collectors in Palmerston North to maximise the amount of recycled glass (cullet) recovered from households across the city.
In December last year, Palmerston North City Council introduced two specially designed glass sorting trucks that enabled glass to be colour-sorted at the kerb. The new sorting process has resulted in an increase of more than 40 tonnes of glass per month, which is an impressive 42% increase in the volume of recovered cullet which will be used at O-I NZ’s Auckland manufacturing plant to make new jars and bottles.
Last week O-I NZ met with Palmerston North’s glass-only collectors, as well as the Council’s entire resource recovery team, to provide them with information designed to ensure optimum cullet recovery rates. This included discussions regarding the glass container manufacturing process and the importance of recovering colour-sorted, contaminant-free cullet.
Waste operations manager Allan Davey says it’s an outstanding result that we all should feel proud of.
Allan Davey says as a result of the huge improvement glass container maker O-I New Zealand (O-I NZ) visited Council’s resource recovery team to learn more about Council’s achievement and to provide staff with information on how they all contribute to the amount of glass that is recycled and what they can do to improve that amount.
O-I NZ sustainability manager Penny Garland says the quality of recycled glass is critical to ensuring it is able to be recycled into jars and bottles.
"We need to receive it colour-sorted and contaminant free," says Penny. "We estimate that we’re unable to use around 50 percent of glass collected around the country which is why this development in Palmerston North is a huge step forward."
O-I NZ currently manufactures glass packaging that has an average recycled glass content of almost 50 per cent and it hopes to achieve a higher recycled content as more council’s adopt kerb-side colour-sorting processes.
