Creating A Circular Economy

Dominic Salmon, the scheme manager at the Glass Packaging Forum (GPF), a not-for-profit membership organisation representing most businesses packaging products in glass bottles and jars in New Zealand, has always loved nature and immersing himself in the environment.

Dominic Salmon Scheme Manager GLASS PACKAGING

After a stint in construction, Salmon returned to university and obtained a Bachelor of Science in environmental protection.

When he first arrived in New Zealand, he fulfilled his childhood dream of working with animals at the Wellington Zoo, where he both cared for the animals and helped the zoo reduce its waste and improve resource efficiency.

Before joining 3R Group (GPF scheme managers), he worked as a waste minimisation officer at several regional and local councils. He has also served on the board of WasteMINZ, an organisation dedicated to helping New Zealand reduce waste and maximise resource recovery.

Part of his work with 3R Group is as the GPF scheme manager, where he works closely with scheme members and the resource recovery sector to improve the environmental outcomes for glass bottles and jars in New Zealand.

“This includes ensuring the scheme’s grant funding has maximum impact, working with and supporting members of the glass supply chain to improve glass recovery and recycling rates, and advocating for best practice methods,” said Salmon. He noted the GPF is reviewing its strategic direction, and no funding round is currently open.

The GPF runs the country’s only voluntary product stewardship scheme for container glass. This helps grow the circular economy and helps its members reduce the environmental footprint of their packaging.

Salmon explained that product stewardship was when businesses take responsibility for the products they make and sell to ensure they are collected, reused, recycled, or properly disposed of at the end of life.

This also promotes more sustainably designed and produced products and circular economy thinking.

Salmon continued that members contribute voluntarily to the scheme, which funds grants for projects that improve glass recovery, recycling and reuse.

“We also work alongside industry, local councils and central government to advocate for and implement best practice glass collection methods and support viable reuse projects.” The overriding goal for the GPF is to keep as much glass out of the landfill as possible so it can be recycled or reused right here in New Zealand.

Salmon said that other than raising the profile of glass packaging, the GPF can have an impact through its grant funding. To date, the GPF has awarded over $4.1 million for projects to improve glass recovery, recycling and reuse, as well as for alternative use and research.

This grant funding is open to all, with the

GPF having worked with everyone from large waste management companies and councils to SMEs, small community groups and schools.

“We provide not only funding but also advice and support to achieve the best environmental outcomes for glass.”

Educating the public was crucial to helping organisations improve their glass recovery. The GPF combines Salmon's knowledge of resource recovery, product stewardship and the circular economy and 3R Group's marketing and communications abilities to achieve this.

Another essential part of the GPF’s work was its advocacy for policy settings and regulations that will help advance New Zealand’s glass circular economy. Apart from asking the Minister for the Environment to declare glass a priority product, the GPF has also commissioned several reports that contribute to and inform advocacy conversations with the government.

When advising businesses wanting to improve their sustainability practices, Salmon encouraged all manufacturers to look at things like the recycled content of the glass they are using. The higher the recycled content, the lower the carbon emissions.

“This is because the furnace using recycled glass can run at lower temperatures compared to using just virgin material.”

He continued that there was also a carbon reduction as less virgin material needed to be produced and transported. Additionally, glass could be recycled right here in New Zealand.

“They can also look at how their glass is being produced. If you’re measuring your scope, three emissions, how your glass is made, and the recycled content are contributing factors.”

The GPF believes that all parts of the supply chain should consider what role they could play in reuse. With glass being a popular choice in beverage reuse programmes, the GPF has seen more regulation emerging in regions such as Europe, designed to cut down on all types of single-use packaging and encourage reuse.

“Where Europe goes, we are likely to follow in our quest to improve our record on waste.”

Regarding businesses’ in-house glass use, the GPF advised making every effort to collect, colour-sort and recycle all glass packaging. If there is potential to reuse glass containers, businesses should investigate these options and use them as much as possible.

Salmon stated the GPF firmly believed that, for businesses that put goods into glass, belonging to a product stewardship organisation will help all achieve better results for the planet. Right now, the GPF’s scheme is voluntary. However, New Zealand has begun to see other types of packaging being regulated.

“We encourage businesses to become part of the conversation sooner rather than later.”

As scheme manager, Salmons makes himself available to advise and support those in the glass supply chain to improve outcomes for the glass they produce, sell, collect, recycle or reuse. This could be anything from helping a council improve its glass collection, storage and transport methods to advising a business wanting to reuse its glass containers.

Projects the GPF has funded over the years have all positively impacted keeping glass out of the landfill and future-proofing and encouraging behaviour change.

One of the biggest was a $165,000 grant which helped the Tauranga City Council roll out a council-funded, kerbside glass collection service that effectively doubled the amount of glass being collected.

Most recently, GPF co-funded a reusable beer flagon project headed by Again Again. The software Again Again is developing and has great potential to increase glass reuse for beer and other products.

“That’s important because reuse is at the top of the waste hierarchy, and we are seeing more and more uptake of reusables in markets like Europe.”

The GPF has also made funds available to help councils transport recycled glass from Hawke’s Bay to Auckland after road closures from Cyclone Gabrielle made freight challenging.

Salmon said the GPF was not just about big grants, with one of its favourite success stories being a small grant for Opunake High School in Taranaki which helped students further their innovative seaweed fertiliser project, which they package in the reused glass.

“We loved catching up with them recently to see how the project has gone from strength to strength over the past 18 months.”

The GPF’s role links those who produce and sell glass bottles and jars with those who collect, transport and recycle them.

This can be connecting supply chain members, helping facilitate solutions like transport or storage, or advocating for government legislation that improves glass outcomes. The GPF provides regular updates and information through webinars, newsletters, media releases, and social media.

When describing how New Zealand performs in sustainability compared to other countries, Salmon said it depended on which countries were compared. With Europe, Salmon said New Zealand is years behind, particularly in terms of using product stewardship and circular economy thinking.

However, he said there had been some encouraging moves by the government recently to establish regulated product stewardship for a wide range of products and foster a more robust culture of reuse and repair.

“I think the public is much more aware of the need for greater sustainability and is starting to pressure businesses to be more sustainable and ethical.”

In terms of glass, New Zealand has strong recovery and recycling rates compared with most countries, especially those with voluntary stewardship. The GPF believes if New Zealand moved towards a regulated, industry-funded stewardship model for glass, it would get the country right up there with the best regarding recovery, recycling and reuse.

For the future, Salmon hoped that product stewardship and a circular economy would be the norm with resources maximised. This would help set New Zealand on the path to a zero waste, zero emissions society.

He concluded that glass was an infinitely recyclable material and was one of New Zealand's most circular packaging materials.

“The GPF is well positioned to demonstrate and advocate for an all-ofindustry stewardship approach for glass and how that promotes a circular economy.” n