More than 300,000kg of glass has been recycled in NSW under a successful new initiative called BottleCycler.
Around 60 NSW pubs and clubs have used the new recycling service over a 9 month period resulting in the equivalent of almost 1.7 million stubbies being diverted from landfill.
So far 41 NSW venues have taken the service up full time.
Under the unique initiative in NSW, pubs and clubs participated in a free two month trial to use the BottleCycler, a machine which sits behind the bar and crushes empty glass bottles to a perfect size for recycling. The glass is then collected by BottleCycler and taken to a Visy Materials Recovery Facility for recycling.
The BottleCycler trial is a unique industry and government funded project between the National Packaging Covenant (NPC), Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) and the Packaging Stewardship Forum (PSF) of the Australian Food and Grocery Council.
The program is also supported by the Australian Hotels Association and large beverage manufacturers Lion Nathan and Fosters.
Captain Cook Cruises officially launched the trial at Kings St Wharf yesterday, after taking on the BottleCycler service full time.
With three machines located on board their vessel the Sydney 2000 they have recycled more than 16,500 kilograms of glass.
Executive Director Anthony Haworth is extremely please with the time and space saved.
“We’ve found it to be a saving grace not only for the environment but on time, space, noise and OH&S, which are all important factors when working in close quarters like we do on the MV Sydney 2000,” Haworth says.
For Covenant CEO Ed Cordner, reducing glass waste is a major achievement.
“Pubs were never designed to cope with the large number of empty glass bottles they face today and they are challenged finding space to put recycle bins plus waste trucks are challenged by small spaces to collect the bins," he says.
"It is fantastic that this project is so successful.”
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