Hawke's Bay residents told: Recycle glass, don't dump it

Although there's been changes made to plastic recycling, Glass Packaging Forum manager Dominic Salmon says recycling glass is still important. Photo / Paul Taylor.

Hawke's Bay residents are being reminded of the importance of recycling glass, because it won't break down at all in landfill.

Although Hawke's Bay residents can only recycle plastics 1 and 2 now, the Glass Packaging Forum says paper, glass, cardboard and metal is still all go.

The forum runs the country's only certified product stewardship scheme for container glass and is reminding residents that it's still one of the most easily recyclable packaging materials.

Manager Dominic Salmon says glass bottles and jars are recycled in New Zealand and not overseas.

"A great little statistic we'd love people to keep in mind when doing their recycling is the energy saved by recycling a single bottle.

"People should absolutely continue to recycle them as throwing glass in landfill is a huge waste of resource. Glass also never breaks down in landfill," he said.

The change to current plastic recycling means plastics with symbols 1 and 2 will be accepted. In Hastings, plastic bottles labelled 1 and 2 will only be accepted.

Salmon said he was concerned the changes to plastic recycling would change general attitudes to other recyclable materials such as glass.

"Recycling glass remains a great solution. It is 100 per cent recyclable and can be recycled an infinite number of times."

Recycled glass, otherwise known as cullet, goes to the country's only glass bottle and jar manufacturer O-I New Zealand in Auckland where it is used to make new glass containers. The average glass content for the company in 2017 was 67 per cent.

Using cullet in production reduces the need for new material, as 1kg of recycled glass replaces 1.2kg of new materials. It also means the furnaces run at lower temperatures so there's less emission.

According to the latest information from O-I, every 10 per cent of recycled glass content reduces emissions by 5 per cent and generates energy savings of approximately 3 per cent.