O-I Australia call for cullet

O-I Australia is seeking interest from glass recyclers in Queensland and Northern New South Wales to supply its new state-of-the-art glass cullet optical sorting plant in South East Queensland.

The high-capacity cullet optical sorting plant, set to open in early 2015, will recover large volumes of recycled glass for use at O-I’s glass container manufacturing plant in Brisbane.

O-I Australia Director of Procurement, Gary Combes said the new facility will be capable of processing a significant volume of furnace ready cullet, far in excess of the current capabilities in Queensland.

“We believe this new optical sorting plant is the missing link in Queensland’s cullet processing infrastructure. The new plant will ensure all glass has an opportunity to be recovered through a closed-loop process and recycled into new glass containers – not down-cycled or sent to landfill,” he said.

Along with opening this opportunity to Material Recovery Facilities to make supply arrangements with O-I Australia directly to take in-feed glass, interest is also sought from smaller recyclers and regional centres interested in an economically viable option to recycle glass into a high-value use.

Glass is 100% infinitely recyclable. Maximising the amount of recycled content in the glass making process creates a number of environmental benefits:

• It reduces the amount of raw materials that must be extracted, transported and used in production;

• It reduces the amount of waste sent to landfill; and

• Due to a lower melting point, every 10% of recycled glass used in production reduces carbon emissions by about 5% and energy use in the process by around 3%.

O-I Australia has a proud history of using recycled glass, in the last annual reporting period post-consumer cullet accounted for 37% of the total glass tonnes packed.

Interested parties are invited to contact Regional Director Business Improvement, Craig Mynott on 088300 7750 or via email, craig.mynott@ap.o-i.com.