Recycling containers rolled out to rural Marlborough residents

Rural Marlborough residents will get two new recycling containers thanks to a $11,000 grant from the GPF.

Recycling has become that much easier for rural Marlborough residents with a grant helping extend the Marlborough District Council’s Rural Community Recycling (RCR) programme.

The $11,000 grant from the Glass Packaging Forum (GPF) has covered half the cost of new recycling containers at Seddon, in south Marlborough, and Oyster Bay, near Port Underwood in the Marlborough Sounds. The remainder of the cost was covered by the Council.

The grant sees the extension of the council’s RCR programme, which already has containers at nine sites in the region (Grovetown, Spring Creek, Rapaura, Tuamarina, Renwick, Waihopai, Awatere Valley Road and Okiwi Bay.)

According to council solid waste manager, Alec McNeil, Oyster Bay resident and visitors have a considerable distance and drive to access existing recycling facilities, while the residents and seasonal workers based in Seddon will benefit from having a facility within the township. The new containers will accept glass bottles and jars, paper, cardboard, plastic and aluminum for recycling.

The containers will service 300 properties in Seddon, including RSE workers, and 200 properties in Oyster Bay, Alec says. The Oyster Bay container may be used elsewhere, such as special events, during the winter months when the population is less than 100, he says.

The containers are expected to divert around 33 tonnes of material from landfill, of which glass will make up around 18 tonnes, Alec says.

The Oyster Bay container was put in place at the end of December, with the Seddon container due to be placed by the end of February, he says.

GPF scheme manager Dominic Salmon says this is the second time it has funded RCR containers in Marlborough, following a $10,000 grant in February last year. “This is likely to be new glass – glass which may otherwise have gone to landfill rather than being recycled. This is in line with one of the GPF’s main objectives – to increase the quality and quantity of glass available for recycling,” he says.

Funds for grants come from levies paid by the voluntary members of the GPF, who operate New Zealand’s only product stewardship programme for container glass. “To date, we’ve funded more than $2.4 million for projects that contribute to that aim,” Dominic says.

The collected glass is sent to the country’s only glass bottle and jar manufacturer, O-I New Zealand in Auckland, to be recycled.