26 September 2023

Recycled glass sees its way to Icon

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A new collaboration between the Territory, Icon Water and private company Re-Group is set to see recycled glass used in Icon Water pipe construction projects across the ACT.

Minister for Recycling and Waste Reduction, Chris Steel said the glass, which was turned into sand at the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Hume, would be used by Icon Water as pipe bedding for water infrastructure around the ACT.

“Following a successful trial, this has now been approved for use by the ACT Environment Protection Authority,” Mr Steel said.

“All the glass material that is collected in our household yellow recycling bins comes to the Hume Materials Recovery Facility and we are now able to turn it into a new, valuable glass sand product on site,” he said.

“While clean bottles from our container deposit scheme go on to be remanufactured into other glass products, glass sand is made from co-mingled glass which makes up approximately 30 per cent of Canberra’s household recycling.”

Mr Steel said it was a great recycling outcome as the glass sand would replace Icon Water’s use of natural river sand which had to be trucked to the ACT at a high financial and environmental cost.

He said Icon Water and their contractors used 200 tonnes of recovered sand for piping projects across the ACT every year.

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