Tauranga’s residents will be pleased to hear that their glass recycling service is back. Earlier in the year, the council decided to scrap the collection service in the Western Bay of Plenty and instead asked residents to take their glass waste to collection sites.
No more! Kerbside recycling is back, with not one but two collection services introduced during Long Term Plan deliberations last week.
The service will start in October as an interim rates-funded glass collection service, and a full kerbside waste and recycling service will be introduced to all residential properties in 2021.
Rebecca Maiden, resource recovery and waste manager in Tauranga, said nearly 70 per cent of the kerbside waste sent to landfills could be recycled or composted. “It’s definitely time for us to do better”.
The Council will have more significant influence over the range of materials recycled (such as food waste, glass, and plastics 3-7), which was not possible with privately-led collection services.
The Glass Packaging Forum has granted $165,000 to contribute to the cost of providing a glass recycling container to each residential property. This would cover about 25 per cent of Tauranga’s glass recycling receptacle costs.
The Council has also submitted to the Ministry of the Environment for further contribution.
Glass Packaging Forum scheme manager Dominic Salmon said the funding came from member levies at the forum’s voluntary product stewardship scheme. The scheme aims to improve the container glass available for recycling.
Therefore the companies that make and sell glass are helping to keep it out of landfills. Salmon calls this funding “product stewardship in action”.
If you live in Tauranga and want to get a recycling container, find out more at www.tauranga.govt.nz.
