News & Events

TerraNova Wins Award for Crushed Glass Projects

TerraNova won a Highly Commended Award for its crushed glass projects at the recent Environmental Packaging Awards in Auckland. This award was for the 'Innovative Use of Surplus Waste Container Glass' category (sponsored by Glass Packaging Forum Inc), and it recognised TerraNova’s initiative in establishing practical and economic ways to use excess glass jars and bottles locally. The judges’ acknowledged TerraNova as “an ardent innovator for many years in waste recovery”. The judges especially noted the use of crushed glass as ‘FilterCrystal’ (a product designed for swimming and spa pool filtration) and BlastGlass (a blasting medium), two products which have been available commercially for several years. The entry also outlined TerraNova’s ongoing research into other possible uses for crushed glass, in particular its very real potential for golf courses as a bunker medium, and as top dressing on putting greens.

The judges recognised that TerraNova’s initiatives in finding solutions to the problem of excess glass “have turned a low value product into something of high value, and one which could be sold outside their immediate location. They have used available technologies to produce an outstanding product.”

TerraNova Marketing Executive Julie McCloy collects the award from Glass Packaging Forum Chairman David Carter (left)

Something of a ‘glass crisis’ currently exists in the recycling industry, particularly in the South Island, where the high costs of transport to the only recycling plant in New Zealand (based in Auckland) make glass recycling a difficult prospect. In Christchurch City/Waimakariri District approximately 10,000 tonnes of container glass are recovered every year, and only 60-70% of that is accepted by the recycling plant for re-melting. That leaves 3-4,000 tonnes of glass for which alternatives uses must be found.

Meta NZ Appoints New CEO

Meta NZ Ltd - operator of Christchurch’s three EcoDepots and processor of its kerbside recycling - welcomes Ian Hay as its new Chief Executive. Ian is a chartered accountant by profession, and brings comprehensive senior management experience in both private and public sector organisations to his new role.
 
Before joining Meta NZ Ltd Ian ran his own business advisory consultancy for fourteen months. Prior to that Ian was employed by the Christchurch City Council (CCC) from 1994 until July 2006. His most recent  roles there were Director of Business Projects (1998-2003) and General Manager, Strategic Development (2003- July 2006), roles that focussed on meeting the broad economic development objectives of the council, as well as managing the Council’s capital programme design and delivery group.
 
Ian has been Christchurch based throughout his career. The opportunity to lead Meta NZ Ltd allows him “to be involved in a team making a real difference to Christchurch. It gives me the opportunity to move from policy development to action, working at the sharp end to help deliver the waste minimisation strategy to the city.
 
“My vision is to see Meta NZ recognised as a key player in materials diversion and waste minimisation. By consolidating our current achievements, and focussing on new opportunities for Christchurch to recycle, recover and reprocess materials, we can not only deliver the best results possible for the city, but also show the rest of the country just what is truly possible in waste minimisation and recovery.”
 
Ian commenced his new role at the end of August.

Smart Thinking Saves Gas 

The Meta NZ team have recently provided a great example of how ‘smart thinking’ can keep waste out of the landfill. 

The plan was to find an effective way to reuse the gas in expired gas cylinders that have been dropped off for recycling at the EcoDepots. With the help of a local company, who de-gas the cylinders at the EcoDepots, Meta is now able to reuse leftover gas in a company car. The empty canisters are then taken away to be checked for reuse, or sold to scrap metal dealers. The gas will be used as a fuel for the Education Officer’s car, which was specially converted to run on LPG. LPG produces less harmful emissions than traditional fuel, as well as being lower cost. 

Along with converting the car, the company is also considering converting the diesel powered quarry drier, which is located at the Parkhouse Rd site. The quarry drier is used to remove any water, sugar, alcohol or paper-sticker from glass containers before they are crushed for use in sandblasting or swimming pool filtration. Once converted the glass drier will be able to operate on both diesel and recycled gas.  Thousands of cylinders are collected at the EcoDepots every year. Reusing the gas will play an important role in protecting the environment and reusing resources.

New Trials May Help Close the Loop on Glass Recycling

TerraNova is currently conducting an innovative two-year trial which may see crushed wine bottles return to vineyards to assist in grape ripening.The application of crushed glass to vineyards is a first in New Zealand, and possibly the world. If results are successful the scheme could provide a viable solution to the growing problem of glass recycling in New Zealand.

TerraNova has sought assistance from Sandihurst Winery for use of trial plots, and Lincoln University’s Centre of Viticulture and Oenology has assisted the project by developing trials that are both credible and scientific. The trials will even compare wines produced from rows using glass and normal rows. Coincidentally, Senior Lecturer Glen Creasy from Lincoln University has been working on a similar trial with Neudorf Vineyard in Nelson using mussel shells instead of glass. Evaluation of the effectiveness of mussel shells has been underway since 2001, and has produced some promising preliminary results relating to grape microclimate and wine quality. 

The December (2005) start date for this trial was appropriate as glass collected through kerbside recycling and processed by TerraNova in December and January increases by up to 40% compared with all other months.
Glass recycling is becoming increasingly difficult in New Zealand. Although glass collected at kerbside in Christchurch and Waimakariri is recycled, glass recycling is become increasingly marginal in other areas. This is because of the high costs of transporting glass to Auckland where O-I, the only large scale bottle manufacturer and recycler of glass in New Zealand, is located, and the limited volume of glass the company can accept for recycling.

TerraNova Chief Executive, Richard Lloyd, believes that this trial shows great promise and that, if successful, the use of glass in vineyards (and other horticultural enterprises) could provide a good local market for crushed glass. 

Sandihurst vineyard owners Hennie and Celia Bosman, are committed to sustainable vineyard practices, and see using crushed glass as an integral part of taking some responsibility for the waste glass produced in New Zealand each year. They also hope to utilise TerraNova’s crushed glass in other applications on their vineyard, such as in landscaping, and in the glass flooring and wall panels of their new tasting shop.  
If results from this two year trial are successful, local wine producers will be clamouring to recover as much of their waste glass as possible to put back onto their vineyards.    

Update March 2007

With the trial now just over half way through, results have proved promising but the trial has been complicated by several factors, most significantly the severe frosts of November 2006, which destroyed the fruit clusters and disrupted the vine canopy.

However, earlier results showed improved cluster weight, weed suppression and moisture preservation in the soil. In addition, a tasting in December 2006, attended by international viticulture consultant Richard Smart (of Smart Viticulture, wwwsmartvit.com.au), showed promising results in the wines made from the trial grapes as opposed to that made from the control vines.