Glass Packaging Forum

The Glass Packaging Forum which represents manufacturers, fillers and retailers of glass containers told a cross party briefing at Parliament House this evening that industry led product stewardship is best for the economy, best for society and best for the environment.

David Carter, Chair of the Glass Packaging Forum told cross party MP's that over $2 million had been raised to identify, develop and promote alternative uses for recycled glass containers:

"Every day industry identifies issues, assesses what needs to be done to solve them and puts in place a strategy to achieve this. This is the approach we have taken to glass recycling - the answer is not to prop up inefficient collection but rather to find sustainable uses for glass reuse in addition to traditional glass making. There is a new generation of recyclers who are keen to work with us on this."

'We're self policing - we know the players in the industry and we will be the first to address free riders. We also know that quick fixes don't work so we are continually investigating new opportunities for reuse of glass and with around 5% more glass packaging being recovered from homes year on year, we are in for the long haul."

"We initiated an amended Transit road specification which now allows for up to 5% of glass cullet to be used in road asphalt. This is helping to provide a local answer for many communities who find that the cost of sending glass back to Auckland for processing is often too high. And to assess the economic viability of this, we have funded a cost benefit analysis - working with Palmerston North and Nelson - which identifies the best technical processes for crushing the glass and asks that the environmental benefits of sustainable aggregates be factored into the tendering process. Government could take a lead here by requiring road construction to include use of recycled aggregates unless it is economically unfeasible."

"Some smaller communities have told us they can't afford to buy crushing equipment, so we are now working on purchasing a mobile crusher which can be used around the country. We're listening, we're learning and we're adapting."

"On the other hand The Waste Minimisation (Solids) Bill seeks to regulate producer responsibility through Container Deposit Legislation (CDL). Concerned that no-one was considering the cost of introducing a CDL infrastructure alongside our existing very successful kerbside recycling programme, we have co-funded an independent study."

"The net impact of introducing a mandatory beverage container deposit system in New Zealand could be as high as $121 million per annum. This is based on creating a model which draws on the best from overseas and so these are conservative costs. Container deposit systems are inherently more expensive than kerbside collection schemes due to the storage, transportation, processing and labour costs on top of the complexity of identifying containers by exact number ( in order to pay refunds and process handling fees) and separating containers by material type and brand owner."

"We don't have the economies of scale which larger countries have to process all the recovered glass which we currently recover. And as a representative from the drinks industry, I'd like to reiterate that introducing CDL will not mean that beverage containers will be reused as drinks containers because of stringent food safety standards to prevent glass fragments in bottles and contamination from cleaning chemicals."

"The Glass Forum is a self funding organisation which is working with local councils, central government and recycling operators to deliver sustainable glass recycling programmes which balance environmental, social and economic interests. This is product stewardship in action at lowest cost and highest efficiency."

John Webber, General Manager: 021 949 215
Lyn Mayes, Communications: 021 471 261

The Glass Packaging Forum comprises over 100 member companies who make, fill, import or sell glass containers in New Zealand. All members are levied according to how much glass they use making it the first large scale product stewardship initiative. Funds raised are available to assist local councils, recycling operators and communities develop commercially viable uses for recycled glass.

It was initiated to address the issue of supporting local communities for whom it was not economically viable to return glass to Auckland however is now responding to the impact of co-mingled collections and processing in the Auckland region.

Click here: Press Release December 2006
Click here: Press Release August 2006 - Glass Furnace
Click here: Press Release August 2006 - $78 million investment
Click here: Glass Packaging Forum News Update - July 2006
Click here: Glass Packaging Forum News Update - June 2006
Click here: Manawatu Standard Press Release - 21 May 2006

The Steering Group met on 27th February for its first meeting of 2007. Much has happened in the early part of the year with the Prime Minister's speech and its focus on sustainability setting the agenda for a busy year.

We have received a letter from the Minister for the Environment David Benson-Pope in response to a letter of concern from our Chair about co-mingled collections. The Minister congratulates the Forum on its initiatives which he considers are examples to all parties in a supply chain; applauds our efforts in getting the O-I specifications for glass in the Auckland City tender documents ( albeit these are not mandatory) and agrees that the Packaging Accord is the ideal forum for addressing the wider issues of single stream recycling.

Since we started the Forum with a mission to find alternative uses for glass, the goal posts have moved. We are no longer a single issue organization. Accordingly this year we will:

1. Address co-mingling by ensuring the widest promotion of the issues;
2. Present our submission to the Select Committee hearing the Waste; Minimisation (Solids) Bill and actively highlight the costs related with extended producer responsibility incl. CDL;
3. Continue to drive research and development of alternative uses for glass;
4. Promote the work of the Glass Forum to local communities and other stakeholders; and
5. Increase membership

Auckland City's tender for a Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) will close 6th March. We are meeting with the Mayor's office to discuss the independent research commissioned by the Forum and reports which have been published recently in the UK.

"Co-mingled recycling collection and recovery of materials" prepared by Auckand based economics practice COVEC in association with global consultancy ERM (Environmental Resources Management) will be released by the Forum this month. We will circulate copies to each of you. In December John Webber and Lyn Mayes visited the new MRF in Timaru and met with local council representatives, recycling operators and journalists. The site is an excellent example of community recycling. Glass processed there will be used locally in roading - it is not intended to be of a specification suitable for processing by O-I.

Last week John Webber was invited by Palmerston North City Council to join them at the opening of the new $1.5m Awapuni Recycling Center by the Prime Minister. Palmerston North continue to be leaders in utilizing glass in local roading projects.

The select committee will be hearing Auckland based submissions on the 26th and 27th April. The Chair will present The Forum's submission. The report can be downloaded from:-

There has been much interest in the report which we released in November providing a cost- benefit analysis of different methodologies of processing glass aggregate in roads.

Several councils have asked for more information and our work will continue in this area particularly now that the Government has committed to a sustainable procurement policy. We are calling for environmental criteria to be included in the consideration of roading contracts and construction. In this we are supported by the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development.

We are also exploring the development of specifications for using glass in construction e.g concrete, installation, filtration systems. Our criteria for funding now includes support for plant where this might be used across a number of communities which currently do not have access to processing plants.

9.12.06 The Press - Road to the Future - it's as clear as Glass
8.12.06 Wairarapa Times Age - When glass is a good thing
8.12.06 Northern Advocate - More glass in roading urged
9.12.06 Dominion Post -Glass roads cut it
12.12.06 Waiuku & District Post - Broken glass requested for roads
12.12.06 Katikati Advertiser - Recycled glass as roading material ruled out
13.12.06 NZ Tenders Gazette - Lobby pushes for more glass in roading
14.12.06 Rodney Times - Plea to see the light and build glass roads
19.12.06 Timaru Herald - Interview with Glass Packaging Forum
20.12.06 Marlborough Express - Council finds uses for crushed glass
20.12.06 Dargaville and Districts News - Glass roads are cheaper

Waikato Times - Waipa brings in kerbside recycling in March 07
Dominion Post - Kapiti road to be built on recycled bottles.

WRAP in the UK has launched a series of reports relating to co-mingled collections.

John's interest in the environment started in 1975 when, as Sales Manager for NZ Glass (now O-I) he was asked to become involved in the Industry Committee of Keep New Zealand Beautiful and deal with a number of public issues related to injuries from broken glass packaging.

The heightened public awareness of environmental issues and the expectations that industry would be further involved resulted in his appointment as the company's first Environmental Manager.

His first significant achievement was the development of the National Glass Reclamation System to collect consumer waste glass nation wide. For this he received a Government Award and a travel grant to America and Europe from the country's first Minister for the Environment, Joe Walding.

This was followed by the establishment of the New Zealand Glass Awards Programme for Schools whereby requests for funding for projects of environmental benefit were submitted to a broad judging panel including the Minister's representative. In the early years up to fifty applications were received for each six monthly judging round.

John's ongoing senior involvement with K.N.Z.B. ultimately resulted in his receiving Life Membership.

With increasing pressure on Central Government to follow the approaches of some Western European countries and legislate against packaging waste the packaged goods industry responded by forming PAC.NZ and advocating the voluntary approach and John was involved as a consultant in assisting the Council's first Executive Director, Dr. David Warburton in negotiating the first voluntary packaging ACCORD in 1996.

At the end of that year John became Executive Director and was subsequently the Industry representative on the Government's working party which developed the National Waste Strategy. Since then John has played the principal industry role in the creation of the second Packaging ACCORD. With a twenty year interest in the glass industry it has been a natural move for him to become involved in the recently formed Glass Packaging Forum as General Manger.

His lifelong interest in sailing has produced three national titles and New Zealand representation. He has been a National Measurer and Commodore of three sailing clubs and is a life member of one.