The report is an annual requirement of its Government accreditation and demonstrates industry’s long-term stewardship of glass.

GPF Scheme Manager Dominic Salmon says work was focused on consolidating gains made over the previous year, particularly removing barriers to glass recycling through improvements to infrastructure, with two primary areas of focus. These being financially supporting improved glass recycling outcomes through grants, and building relationships between glass packaging manufacturers, importers, fillers, and sellers and those who collect and recycle glass.

“Our success this year was due to relationships with our members, councils, community groups, transport operators and end market users,” Dominic says.

“Profile is critical to the scheme’s success and every effort has been made to promote the infinitely recyclable nature of glass right here in New Zealand.”
Mass balance for the year showed a total glass capture rate of 73% of all glass going to market. Of this 71% was recycled – a 9% increase on the previous year – while 14% went to roading, 6% was stockpiled and 7% went to landfill.

Data improvement was a major focus this year, and will remain so, but with the scheme being voluntary it’s accepted the whole picture cannot be known. “As a voluntary scheme there is no obligation for the relevant parties to provide the required data, so it’s an on-going challenge to ensure the majority of glass handled at the various points of its life cycle are accounted for,” Dominic says. “However, we continue to look at ways we can improve our data quality.”

As part of a ‘let’s talk’ approach the GPF achieved a survey engagement response rate of over 60% from both industry and local government. This saw the scheme achieve its 2024 target for survey engagement rates.

Grant allocations were focused on “sensible infrastructure” such as glass storage bunkers and collection of glass for recycling to improve transport efficiency and viability. In total $457,983 was funded for projects ranging from infrastructure to public place recycling, plant and research. This funding helped improve the flow of 11,000 tonnes of glass.

Dominic says he is pleased with progress and believes the scheme is on track to achieving its future goals, most notably a glass capture rate of over 80% by 2024. “Our current 73% recovery rate is enviable for any material in any part of the world, but by continuing to work with stakeholders we are confident of achieving more.”
Read the full report.

The Packaging Forum set up soft plastics collections in 2015 and the soft plastic recycling scheme received accreditation as a voluntary product stewardship scheme under the Waste Minimisation Act in March 2018.

Chair of the scheme Malcolm Everts says that the scheme is a genuine example of a circular economy which directly funds collection, transport and processing: “The report shows a tale of two different years and reflects the massive changes in global recycling conditions. Different times need different approaches and we have evolved from collecting as much as possible and shipping it to offshore recyclers, to collecting what we can process here in Aotearoa. Local processing is critical, and we have built close partnerships with Future Post and Second Life Plastics.”

“We adapted the scheme to match collections with NZ processing capacity, plus we have put further focus on reduce and re-use initiatives like phasing out single use plastic bags. It is pointless collecting waste if there is nowhere to recycle it. In 2019, around 13 million bags, enough to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool were collected and recycled in New Zealand, and that’s without the shopping bags that have been banned. This is in contrast to 2018 when 100 million bags were dropped off for recycling, but overseas recycling markets dried up and we stopped collections temporarily to deal with the excess.”

Mr Everts added: “Product stewardship schemes must be flexible to adapt to the economic and environmental climate. Kiwis are engaged, and happy to clean, collect & deliver material for recycling. Industry is engaged under a voluntary approach and around 70% of brands that use soft plastic are scheme members funding the recycling service and taking steps within their own businesses to reduce plastic consumption where feasible.”
Scheme Manager Lyn Mayes agreed that flexibility and loyalty has been critical:

“Since the scheme received accreditation in March 2018, we first had to deal with the impact of China’s National Sword Policy which resulted in us suspending collections in early 2019 and this year we again suspended collections during COVID-19 lockdown. Throughout these changing times, I would like to thank the ongoing support and loyalty of our members, collection and processing partners and consumers.”

The report concludes that the principal limiting factor for the scheme is that there are only two processors in the North Island which are able to process post-consumer soft plastics and notes that expansion of processing capacity requires:

• Demand for the plastic fence posts, garden edging, cable cover and other products currently being manufactured from soft plastic materials;
• Investment in new processing facilities around New Zealand by central and local government in partnership with industry; and
• There needs to be multiple “Future Posts” to create capacity; and Commitment by local and central government departments and Industry to purchase products made from recycled materials.

Click here to download the report.