eNewsletter #15
April 2011: The great glass conundrum
Used once and thrown away
Finish your chores, sit back and pour yourself a long, cold drink. While you sip, ponder the glass bottle you probably poured it from; used once and thrown away.
You feel great about that though, because you recycle, right? So why don’t you throw away your glass rather than washing it and putting it away in the cupboard?
Because you pay more for your glass than you do for your bottle. Because it is easy to wash and re-use, because the glass is fragile and might break and you’re not allowed to put broken glass in the recycling. Because people would look at you as if you were crazy.
Hey, let’s back up a bit. Some of us remember bottles that were reused, there was a cash incentive for returning them to the retailer. It seemed like a good system so what happened?
- Glass producers responded to requests for lighter bottles by producing a thinner, no refill, single trip package. Easier on the back, but not as light as plastic or aluminium.
- Cash back schemes were labour intensive and un-economical.
- Producers moved to more distinctive packaging (e.g. embossed bottles) that required extra sorting if re-using.
- Drink producers centralised their operations so that they had only one factory each, usually in Auckland. If they reused bottles they would have to transport them.
- Bottle wash machines use water, energy and caustic chemicals to achieve regulation hygiene requirements.
These factors have made it difficult to reuse bottles. Look out for boutique brewers who do, their carbon footprint is likely to be a lot smaller than their competitors.
Export earnings go on bottles
Since the current recession began to bite small, local beverage companies that charge slightly more for their rather more sustainable products have been feeling the pinch. That’s not surprising when you see the economies more competitive players are making.
In the three years 2008-2010 New Zealanders purchased 213.5 million 330-500ml glass bottles and jars from overseas at a cost of almost $41 million. Most of these were beer and soft drink bottles. To earn the overseas funds to buy these bottles we would need to export 410,000 lambs. We also import many large beer bottles and wine bottles.
Why are we importing bottles? Because some beverage producers prefer the cheapest container no matter what the environmental or social costs. Imported beer bottles cost about 20 cents per bottle, plus duty, to land in NZ and sell for as little as 26 cents. In the last three years the three biggest suppliers have been China (100.7 million bottles), United Arab Emirates (70m) and Thailand (21.8m).
Binning bottles
Almost four percent of land-filled rubbish in the Wellington region is glass. That is 23.5 kg of glass per person per year or the equivalent of about one hundred beer bottles each. Not all of it comes from households, many bars and cafes also dump bottles rather than recycle them.
Under the Waste Minimisation Act 2008 there is a levy charged of $10 per tonne for all rubbish that goes to a landfill. Half the money from this levy goes to all local councils (not regional councils) to be spent encouraging people to reduce their rubbish, to re-use goods and recycle them.
This funding is behind Wellington City’s new recycling collection system. Among other things the system enables sorting of glass during collection. Colour separated glass can go to remelt rather than being used for road aggregate.
The rest of the levy money is spent around the country on a variety of waste minimisation projects. One of these projects aims to expand the recycling facilities available in the 12 regions hosting Rugby World Cup games.
New Zealanders’ average per person per year waste-to-landfill is 575kg, the European equivalent is 513kg. At present Masterton residents (the light blue line in the picture) recycle 2-3 times as much as other residents in the region. This may be reflecting the higher landfill costs there.
Turning old glass into new
Glass bottles are not only imported, they are also produced here in Penrose, Auckland. Since the O-I New Zealand factory installed a third furnace last year they have been able to recycle more glass than ever. This reduces the carbon cost of the glass products they make.
The carbon cost, or footprint, is a cradle to grave formula that calculates the carbon emitted to take glass from its raw state, make something out of it and then return it to its raw state again. The footprint for glass is 1.25 kg of carbon dioxide emitted to make 1kg of glass. However, remelting glass uses less energy than manufacturing it from the raw materials. Every tonne of waste glass recycled into new glass items saves 315 kilograms of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere.
Find out if the bottles in your home were made in New Zealand by checking the code at the bottom of the bottle. The code for the Penrose factory is O-I A05.
Glass bottles are not only imported, they are also produced here in Penrose, Auckland. Since the O-I New Zealand factory installed a third furnace last year they have been able to recycle more glass than ever. This reduces the carbon cost of the glass products they make.
The carbon cost, or footprint, is a cradle to grave formula that calculates the carbon emitted to take glass from its raw state, make something out of it and then return it to its raw state again. The footprint for glass is 1.25 kg of carbon dioxide emitted to make 1kg of glass. However, remelting glass uses less energy than manufacturing it from the raw materials. Every tonne of waste glass recycled into new glass items saves 315 kilograms of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere.
Find out if the bottles in your home were made in New Zealand by checking the code at the bottom of the bottle. The code for the Penrose factory is O-I A05.
From bottles to roads
Glass that has not been colour sorted is more difficult to recycle into new glass products because if you use too much of it you cannot achieve the right colour tint in the finished product.
The colour sorting needs to occur early in the recycling collection process. This is because the bottles break easily and are then hazardous. It is also good to separate glass from other recycling as plastic and paper contaminated with more than low levels of broken glass has to be landfilled.
Because of the higher costs associated with collecting glass separately and sorting it councils have resisted changing the existing contracts they have with recycling collectors. This has resulted in stockpiles of unsorted glass.
In order to reduce the stockpiling of glass and avoid paying a waste levy on it some councils have been giving it to roading contractors. They put it through their stone crushers mixed with rock and incorporate it into the sub-base course under roads.
What is Greater Wellington doing?
Under the Resource Management Act responsibility for waste falls largely on local councils and the Ministry for the Environment. Regional councils regulate the effects of open and closed landfills on the environment.
Greater Wellington also encourages sustainable use of resources through the Be the Difference behaviour change programme.
Behaviour change can be achieved in a number of different ways:
- Through real incentives such as subsidies
- Through potential rewards, often quite separate from the behaviour, such as aligning one’s behaviour to that of a famous person who you respect or admire (a role model)
- By making the behaviour normal. This creates a kind of peer pressure among community members to conform to the norm.
- Through government leadership. By ‘walking the talk’ or being seen to ‘practise what they preach’ government departments and councils show the possibilities of the behaviour change action they are promoting.
- Through the making and enforcement of rules.
Greater Wellington’s Be the Difference programme aims to give members information about sustainability issues that will not only explain which behaviour change is desirable and why, it will also help you to encourage others to change their behaviour.
Winners
Let’s hear it for northern rata and all the other local natives celebrated in the plant guide! Many entries to our last prize draw nominated the pohutukawa as their favourite local native plant. Only one of these people acknowledged that pohutukawa is a non-local native plant.
The winners of the draw for copies of the Wellington Regional Native Plant Guide and their favourite plants were: the Armishaw family of Lower Hutt, kowhai; Gary Jowett of Wilton, kohekohe; Philippa Boardman of Kingston, ngaio, Audry Harper of Trentham, tree fern; and Julie Tribbe of Otaki, Olearia arborescans.. Kowhai was the most popular local native plant.
Did you know?
You can vote online for New Zealand’s best and worst packaging.
And from Europe; a survey about resources, efficiency and waste found that:
- People underestimate how much waste they throw away (especially organic waste)
- Participants wanted more & better recycling drop-off points and more information about what/how to separate
- They prefer a user pays levy by quantity to a tax.
Useful links
Netherlands National Glass Museum