New Zealand Glass Recycling Rate hits new high

New Zealand Glass Recycling Rate hits new high and matches EU average for the first time

15th June 2015

Glass container recovery as a percentage of glass consumption has reached a record high of 72.6% according to data released today by The Packaging Forum. Consumption of glass packaging has continued to decline slightly but there has been 5% increase in glass collected from kerbside and public places for recycling over 2014.

John Webber, Manager of the Glass Packaging Forum (part of The Packaging Forum) said:- “This increase after two relatively stagnant years reflects the investment made by local government and industry to introduce new and better systems to collect glass containers from households and the hospitality sector. We monitor over time every project which we fund and there is typically around 18 month’s pay back before we start seeing the glass returns. On this basis we are confident that our internal target of a 78% recycling rate is achievable by 2017 when our current voluntary product stewardship scheme completes its first seven year term.”

“The New Zealand recycling rate now matches the EU average for 28 countries and if we were ranked against these countries, we would be 18th ahead of countries such as UK and the Netherlands and on a par with France.”

Webber added:-

“Last year we directly funded projects worth around $380,000 to increase and improve the quality of glass recovery and there has been an enormous amount of work conducted by O-I with collectors around the country to maximize the amount of glass which is of a quality that can be recycled at the glass furnaces in Auckland. To increase the recycling rate further we are proactively identifying where and how we can help provide infrastructure to support glass recovery rather than reacting to applications for funding as we have done in the past. We are talking to Councils about how we can provide assistance before policy decisions are taken and bringing to them projects which are working in other parts of the country.

Details of projects funded by the Glass Packaging Forum are summarized in: Improving Glass Collections in our Communities (http://www.glassforum.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/Improving-Glass-Collections-in-the-Communities.pdf).

ENDS

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