Grant assists better glass recycling

Monday, 9 January 2017

Western Bay Council has been granted funding to extend its glass collecting system. Additional plastic pallet bins have been purchased for collecting colour sorted glass.

Council operates three community recycling centres in the Bay of Plenty district. The funding is to assist with ten bins in three local areas; Katikati, Te Puke and Athenree with an additional six bins at Athenree to cover holiday periods.

With thanks to The Glass Packaging Forum Scheme and Love NZ, the grant arrived in time for the busy summer holiday season.

Environmental Solid Waste Team Leader Ilze Kruis says last year Council improved their collection system of colour separated glass from using frames with wool bags - a health and safety risk and not efficient - to plastic pallet bins, which are stackable and require less manual labour.

This system is working well; however, Council's budget did not allow the number of bins the District needed, so Ilze applied for the Glass Packaging Forum grant.

Western bay is predicting that glass volumes at the recycling centre will continue to steadily increase with growth in the area, as well as the influx of holiday makers during summer months and over the Easter period.

We're committed to continuing to minimise waste to landfill, but we have to ensure we do so in a safe and efficient manner. These additional pallet bins will help to achieve this, says Ilze.

At Western Bay we care what happens to the environment, our customers and that we aim with the grant from the GPF to maximise glass recycling in the area.