In what is believed to be an environmental first for Australia, Clarence City Council in southeastern Tasmania has designed, developed and managed the construction of a carpark using a breakthrough recycled glass product.
In partnership with Veolia Environmental Services, local construction company the Hazell Brothers Group, and the Packaging Stewardship Forum (PSF)* of the Australian Food and Grocery Council, Clarence has constructed a new carpark at its Rosny Park Tennis Club using 45 tonnes of recycled sand.
This application of recycled glass has avoided the mining of 53 tonnes of virgin sand from southern Tasmania’s rapidly depleting natural sand reserves.
Clarence Mayor Jock Campbell said the City is proud to lead Tasmania and the nation in the use of the glass sand product.
“It is valuable and a little shocking to remember that beneath the roads we use every day are thousands of tonnes of virgin sand mined from the country’s dune systems,” Mayor Campbell said. “This relatively humble carpark has allowed Council and its partners to build a solid business case for the use of recycled glass sand in such applications.”
The recycled glass used in the mix is ground to a maximum of 2.36 millimetres in diameter. It was used for pipe bedding, concrete and asphalt in the project.
Mayor Campbell congratulated Veolia and Hazell Brothers for forming an alliance with the intention of developing markets that will use up to 20,000 tonnes of recycled glass per annum.
Through its successful grant application to the National Packaging Covenant, Veolia will receive $170,000 in funding, which will help see its intentions come to fruition.
Mayor Campbell also thanked the PSF for contributing $40,000 to the $88,000 project, noting that such cooperative projects between industry, Local Government and business are key in building a culture of environmental stewardship.
“Councils are well placed to bring together this kind of engineering and project management expertise and we hope other councils around Australia will find practical assistance from the Rosny Park project,” Mayor Campbell said.
For further information contact Mayor Campbell on 0419 130 642.
*The Packaging Stewardship Forum is a forum of the Australian Food and Grocery Council. Its members include Australia’s major beverage companies and their packaging suppliers.
