The Glass Packaging Forum (GPF) operates the country's only voluntary product stewardship scheme for glass bottles and jars, where it primarily ensures that as much waste container glass (bottles and jars) is diverted from landfills as possible.
The GPF member businesses contribute levies to enhance the sustainability of their glass packaging through initiatives supporting improved collection systems, infrastructure, logistics, and reuse programs.
In the past year, the GPF has faced reoccurring challenges as well as some specific to 2023, such as the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle on glass transportation. The GPF’s Scheme Manager, Dominic Salmon, said they stepped in with a grant to help make this more viable.
“Cyclone Gabrielle highlighted the need for sufficient storage when logistics are disrupted. The GPF has helped enable future-proofing through grants to improve collections, storage, and transport around Aotearoa,” Salmon said.
A recurring challenge is data collection, Salmon said. As businesses are not required to report throughout their supply chain, the data collected is sparse and often disparate, meaning that progress and data often lack synergy.
Contamination of the glass stream and loss from co-mingled collection systems (everything in one bin) continues to be a leading challenge to improving New Zealand's glass recovery and recycling rates. Salmon explained that co-mingled systems are how just under half of New Zealanders are serviced by kerbside recycling collections.
"This results in higher contamination levels and loss in sorting compared to collecting glass separately.”
A key area where glass packaging sustainability could be improved is its recycling collection. Salmon emphasised that separating glass would increase recycling rates and reduce carbon emissions as furnaces would run at lower temperatures when using recycled material.
He continued that not all glass is 'created equal'. The carbon footprint and recycled content of glass can vary, with imported glass sometimes only containing 16 percent recycled content (all from pre-consumer material), while others are higher.
"It's important for all those using imported glass to know how to assess its sustainability."
Another challenge revolves around the general uncertainty around proposed government regulation. This directly affects how glass is collected and impacts recycling operators' ability to have confidence in decisions around infrastructure investment.
However, Salmon said it had been encouraging to see councils continue moving to glass-separate collections, which is the industry's best practice.
"Many of our members have taken steps to become more sustainable by introducing targets for recycled content in the glass packaging they use and measuring the carbon impact of their packaging."
The most significant carbon impact from container glass is at the manufacturing stage.
"Globally, glass producers want to decarbonise through furnace fuels and systems changes. For example, in Europe, Absolut Vodka partnered with Ardagh Group to move to a partly hydrogen-powered glass furnace – the first global spirits brand to do so."
The GPF and its members are closely watching this area of advancement, which is being driven in Europe, to see how it can be applied to products here in New Zealand.
"Much has been achieved around lightweighting of bottles, but there is still work in this area which can help reduce the carbon footprint of glass."
Also driving glass packaging innovation is a segment of consumers who increasingly seek reuse and refill options as they become more aware of sustainability issues. As a result, more businesses are pivoting as they work out how they can incorporate reuse and refill with their logistics systems.
For example, reusable coffee cup-turned-technology company Again Again is catering to this demand through its digital platform, where it makes beer refills easier for consumers and retailers. The project has support from some GPF members, who are taking part in the pilot.
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