A GLASS RECYCLING SUCCESS STORY!
09 Sep 2012
Recycled Crushed Glass (RCG) has become a viable and environmentally beneficial resource for the civil construction sector.
Thanks to a partnership between the Packaging Stewardship Forum (PSF) of the Australian
Food and Grocery Council and Shoalhaven Recycling, Recycled Crushed Glass (RCG) has become a viable and environmentally beneficial resource for the civil construction sector in the Southern Illawarra region of NSW.
Shoalhaven Recycling, a small family business based in the township of Bomaderry, together with the PSF, funded new glass reprocessing equipment to produce a fine RCG product that can be used in a number of civil construction applications. RCG can be used as replacement for sand in pipe embedment material, asphalt and concrete pavement surfaces and road base.
Shoalhaven Recycling has now established a strong local market for the use of RCG products, processing more than 7,000 tonnes of glass from businesses in Bega, Shoalhaven and Kiama Councils annually, equivalent to almost 40 million stubbies!
Shoalhaven Recycling Managing Director, Sandy Wilson said, “We are appreciative of the financial support and the networking opportunities afforded to us by the PSF. In addition, we are extremely grateful to the Shoalhaven businesses that have chosen to replace nature’s valuable virgin sands with our 100 percent RCG sand, in a number of civil applications”.
“Due to the increasing interest in our product, we are now investing additional capital to upgrade our existing plant. This upgrade will improve the plants productivity levels and enable us to produce specific grades of glass sand, suitable for several different applications”.
PSF General Manager, Jenny Pickles congratulated Shoalhaven Recycling for their commitment to recycling and the example they had set for other regional areas of NSW (and Australia). “Remote and regional communities are often challenged by the associated costs with transporting materials considerable distances to end markets for recycling. Providing a market for the local use of RCG as an alternative to virgin sand is a win-win solution for everyone.” Ms Pickles said.
Packaging Stewardship Forum (PSF)
The PSF is a forum of the Australian Food and Grocery Council. It works with government and industry partners across Australia to deliver recycling, litter reduction and education programs on behalf of its members, Australia’s major beverage companies and their packaging suppliers.
More info: http://afgc.org.au/psf/ and http://afgc.org.au/psf/glass-recovery-a-recycling.html