The growing problem of Timaru's glass mountain

03 December 2005 Timaru Herald, by Hamish Stuart

South Canterbury recyclers are struggling to deal with empty glass bottles.

 

People are recycling their empties, but the question of what to do with them remains unanswered.

 

The Timaru District Council hopes to be able to deal with the recycled bottles by the time kerbside recycling begins next July, solid waste manager Brian Gallagher said.

 

One possibility was to crush the glass into an aggregate, which could then be used in making roads, he said.

 

"We are in the process of working out a contract with Envirowaste that we hope to co-ordinate South Island-wide. The cost of transporting glass to the North Island to be reprocessed is prohibitive," he said.

 

There are strong markets for the other items the council was recycling, including green waste and metals, Mr Gallagher said.

 

The issue was highlighted this week when Waimate's Whitehorse community trust wanted to store its amassed bottles in trenches until it could find a cost-effective way to recycle them.

 

The Packaging Council of New Zealand, a group that represents manufacturers who use bottles, is also trying to deal with the mountains of glass piling up around the country.

 

John Webber is responsible for the packaging council's relationships with the government and the organisation's former chief executive.

 

He said there was too much glass for New Zealand's one bottle factory to use up and the situation was a lot more complicated than it looked.

 

He said researchers were working "frantically" to find something to do with the ever-growing mountains of glass.

 

"To suggest that it cannot be used is wrong," he said.

 

"It's serious, but the situation is not quite as black as it seems."

More than half of the bottled products consumed in New Zealand came from overseas, so having re-usable bottles would not be the answer, Mr Webber said.

 

Added to this, because of the strong New Zealand dollar, it was cheaper for New Zealand-based bottlers to ship in new bottles from overseas than to buy recycled New Zealand-made ones.

 

"Bottle washing plants are horrendously expensive. In the past, the majority of products were made and bottled in New Zealand, but

this is not the case now," he said.

 

Auckland-based Lion Breweries spokesperson Kate O'Neill said reusing bottles carried a hidden cost, as the bottles were heavier and used more petrol or diesel to move around.

 

Also, bottle washing was expensive and the caustic soda used in cleaning the bottles could damage the environment, she said.

 

Recyclers were hoping in vain for their stockpiles of glass to become a commodity,a Motueka-based community activist said.

 

"The unfortunate reality is they are probably never going to get rid of their glass," Community Action for People and Planet spokesman Duncan Eddy said.

 

"New Zealanders have already exported 16,000 tonnes of glass to Australia this year. And that isn't the good kind of export – we're paying to get rid of it," he said.

 

His group is pushing for a return to refundable bottle deposits