Flemington backs a winner in glass recycling

The equivalent of half a million champagne bottles is expected to be recycled at this week’s Spring Racing Carnival at Flemington.

Organisers estimate about 400,000 kg of glass will be recycled on Australia’s famous racecourse over the next week at the Derby, Melbourne Cup, Oaks and Emirates Stakes events.

The recycling of the mountain of champagne, sparkling wine, wine and beer bottles, as well as beer stubbies, is made possible due to a unique glass-crushing machine called Bottlecycler. There will be 16 Bottlecyclers situated around the track which will crush glass bottles to an optimum size for recycling.

Flemington Events Manager Ennis La Torre said: “A phenomenal amount of beverage packaging is discarded at the races - most of it is glass. Last year, the Bottlecycler machines helped us to recycle 14,000 kg of glass, which is a huge amount. This year we’re aiming to recycle almost 30 times as many bottles; this is made possible with the installation of more machines around the track,” La Torre said.

Packaging Stewardship Forum (PSF) General Manager Jenny Pickles said the organisation has been driving new opportunities to increase glass recycling and highlighted the positive outcomes Bottlecycler brings to business as well as the environment.

“Venues with major events such as the Spring Racing Carnival can now easily recycle glass bottles and improve health and safety issues associated with handling glass,” Pickles said.

The Bottlecycler service has been on offer to Victorian hospitality venues for quite some time with free two-month trials on offer. The trial, jointly funded by the National Packaging Covenant and the PSF, has seen more than 60% of the venues take the service on permanently and more than one million kilograms of glass recycled.