Wine drinkers get option for WA glass waste
Inside Waste Weekly - Tuesday, 26 August 2008
The Shire of Augusta, encompassing WA’s well-known Margaret River wine region, is moving ahead with plans to save glass from being landfilled or transported to SA for processing, placing its order for a Glass AGG GM-2 glass crushing facility.
With over 100 wineries in the region, there is plenty of glass waste produced. Currently 200-300 tonnes is recovered annually, but this is trucked up to Perth before being loaded onto trains and sent to South Australia for processing.Deeming this choice between landfill or long distance transport both economically and environmentally unsound, the shire is putting up around $90,000 of its own funds to buy the crushing plant.
Some $126,000 in funding is being kicked in through the WA Department of Environment and Conservation and the National Packaging Covenant.
The system weighs around 3.6 tonnes. A popper unit breaks the initial glass containers and a shear unit accommodates the separation of labels from the glass. The product is then separated from the lids and labels using a trommel screen before a sizer unit creates an aggregate mix around 9.5mm in diameter.
Tracy Valentine from Australian distributor It’s Green says the particular Glass AGG plant the shire has on order is capable of crushing up to 10 tonnes of glass an hour, and should be delivered from the US early next year.
In the meantime, the Shire of Augusta will begin building up a stockpile of material. It will also be accepting glass from surrounding councils, setting itself up as the glass recycling hub for south west WA.
It aims to process 800-900 tonnes in the first 12 months of operation. Glass will be crushed down to a sand-like product, with use for pipe embedment the initial target use. A range of higher-order uses will also be investigated.
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