Brand owners, glass manufacturers and retailers joined local and central government, recycling operators, the construction sector and a party of school children at Parliament today to launch what has been dubbed "beauty or the beast" - a mobile glass crusher.

The crusher, which is co-funded by the Glass Packaging Forum and Lion Nathan, was formally launched by the Hon David Parker, Minister for the Environment and Nandor Tanczos, spokesperson for the Environment for the Green Party.

David Carter, Chair of the Glass Packaging Forum said that the decision to invest in the crusher had evolved over the past 12 months.

"The Glass Packaging Forum started because New Zealanders got better at recycling and we simply didn't have use for all of the glass recovered. After nearly 80 years of glass recycling, this presented us with a unique and challenging problem."

"We soon realised that simply putting our hands in our pockets to provide funds did not work and would not deliver our ultimate goal that "all glass recovered in New Zealand is recycled". For this to happen, industry needed to work with local councils, recycling operators, community trusts and central government to identify, develop and deliver new glass recycling opportunities."

Mr Carter said that the commercial sector has done what it's good at and applied a business approach:

"We commissioned research and funded the development of new recycling initiatives but realised that this alone was not going to solve the problem. That said; the research whether in assisting with specifications, cost benefit analysis of different crushing methodologies, or reviewing different types of collections; has been an important step along the way with the result that glass is now used in our roads, construction and foamed glass insulation."

"Today we are going one step further with the purchase and ongoing operation of this mobile glass crusher. It will be operated by Silaca Crushers and we will offer this service to all communities at a cost comparable to local operators but we think it will be particularly valuable to those who do not have their own facilities."

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