City to get new glass collection vehicles

The City’s glass recovery revenue is about to get a boost thanks to two new purpose built glass collection trucks.

The new trucks will begin work in January and will mean an increase in glass recovery from 34% to 90%.

Rubbish and recycling asset engineer Natasha Simmons said that currently glass is handled up to five times before it reaches the Recycling Centre and the frequent handling results in unwanted contamination.

"When the new trucks start work, the glass will be handled only once, which means that 90% can be recycled leading to greater revenue when it's on-sold."

The new trucks will be driven and operated by a sole operator and have a sorting platform built into them.  The operator will empty the kerbside glass recycling crates onto the platform and sort into designated bins on the truck. This ensures the glass arrives at the Awapuni Resource Recovery Park already sorted.

Proceeds from the sale of surplus trucks are expected to be approximately $190,000.

Natasha says that the biggest change will relate to residents who add prohibited items such as lids and light bulbs, Pyrex, mirror glass and window glass to their crate.

"Crates containing non-recyclable glass items will have a sticker put on them to let the resident know that their crate has not been forgotten, but that the items in it are not recyclable," Natasha said. "This is because the glass sorted into the new trucks goes directly from there to the processor with no further sorting, and any loads with contamination higher than 2% will be rejected. There is no facility on the new trucks to store waste."