Glass collection points ready to go in Ipswich

24 August 2018

The first two specific glass collection points have been set up and are ready for Ipswich residents to deposit their glass bottles and jars for recycling.

Ipswich City Council today announces the locations – at Battye Park, Hunter Street, Brassall and Lobley Park, Warwick Road, Churchill – with up to two more locations to follow in coming weeks.

These new spots are in addition to the ongoing glass collections points at the Riverview and Rosewood Recycling and Refuse centres.

There will be specially marked signs and recycling bins at the parks in Brassall and Churchill clearly identifying where and what residents can deposit.

Not all types of glass are accepted for recycling. In order to keep recyclable glass pure, it’s important that residents don’t mix non-recyclable and recyclable glass types at council’s glass collection points:

*              Recyclable glass includes: clear and coloured glass bottles and jars of all sizes are recyclable – including beer, wine and soft-drink bottles, food and vitamin jars.

*              Non-recyclable glass includes: drinking glasses, window glass, light bulbs, car windscreens, mirrors, ceramics, china and oven-proof and heat-treated glass – dispose of these by wrapping in newspaper and placing in your red-top bin.

Residents are asked to give bottles and jars a light clean if necessary and remove lids (plastic or metal lids can go in your yellow top recycle bin) and any plastic/metal rings or tabs.

If you are not able to drop your glass items at one of council’s glass collection points, place your glass bottles and jars (cleaned, with lids removed) in your red-top general waste bin – but as a last resort only.

When council announced in May its new Recycle 4 campaign – targeting just paper, plastic, cardboard boxes, cans and tins – residents were asked to stop putting glass in their yellow top bins.

Broken glass had been contaminating other recyclable items, such as paper and cardboard, in the yellow top bins and it was decided that removing glass would help get the city’s recycling contamination rate down from 52 per cent to the target of 15 per cent or lower.

In July, council signed an exclusive contract with the world’s leading glass recycler, Owens-Illinois (O-I), to take glass from the Riverview and Rosewood Recycling and Refuse centres and, eventually, the additional glass collection locations across the city.

Council anticipates sending 2,000 tonnes or more of glass to O-I a year for recycling. That means a lot of glass bottles and jars from Ipswich will be recycled by O-I into new glass bottles that are then sent to local beverage companies in SEQ for re-use.

The first load of glass from Ipswich has gone to O-I, about 3 tonnes, with another delivery expected next week.

O-I’s General Manager for Australia and New Zealand Paul Vine said every tonne of recycled glass can be turned into one tonne of new glass packaging.

“Every kilogram of recycled glass used in our manufacturing process replaces 1.2 kilograms of the raw material – soda ash, sand and limestone – used to create a bottle or jar,” he said.

“It also provides an energy saving of approximately 3 per cent for every 10 per cent of recycled glass used and reduces carbon emissions by approximately 5 per cent for every 10 per cent of recycled glass used in production,” Mr Vine said.

Council’s glass recycling will complement a new State Government program.

The Queensland Government’s planned Container Refund Scheme (CRS) is being introduced on 1 November 2018, which will enable you to take selected glass containers to drop-off locations and reverse vending machines for a 10c refund on the container.

However, that scheme focusses on beverage containers, including aluminium cans and some drink cartons, and will feature only selected glass products. The council scheme includes all glass bottles and jars.

Council has now allocated four locations as glass collection stations and continues to investigate further convenient locations across Ipswich. Council will update its website with these locations as they become available.

Residents are encouraged to sign up to the Ipswich Bin App https://www.ipswich.qld.gov.au/residents/waste/ipswich-bin-app or visit the Ipswich City Council web page for more detailed information on recycling and specifically glass https://www.ipswich.qld.gov.au/glass or phone council at 3810 6666.

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