It has been a long time coming, but finally I spotted one of the new council glass recycling trucks.

The design phase for the new vehicles was announced by the council in September 2021, it took a while for these new trucks to start rolling out onto our streets, but they do look very smart.

Residents can place out a glass crate every second week for collection. Three different glass colour types are sorted curbside; Clear, Green and Brown. Glass colours are not mixed and dumped individually into their corresponding colour at the recycling recovery centre. The council is then able to on sell the recovered material for a much higher rate due to the care taken to sort the glass and minimise crosscontamination.

Only glass which contained food or drink will be collected. Things like broken glass, windows, mirrors or heattreated glass cannot be accepted. Residents should use the council provided crates and not use their own containers or boxes full of bottles. More crates can be ordered for free from the council and now issued in a blue colour to match the new trucks and to help residents identify what waste and recycling goes in what bin.

I have filmed this driver before while operating the old orange glass trucks, and while talking to him on his route today, he was very impressed with the new vehicles. They are much quieter and faster to use than the old vehicles. One downside is the sorting platform where the glass crates are initially tipped out onto is smaller than on the old trucks, holding only one crate of glass at a time.

From my own observation, the driver does not need to be so vigilant of over head dangerous when the sorted glass is lifted into the truck as this new truck is equipped with a roof fairing. The roof fairing helps lift tree branches for example up over the top of the truck and the body of the hopper is also much better designed to minimise the risks with it being mostly enclosed.

To compare the old truck with the new, please check out my other video filmed in 2021 with the same driver on the same route but in the old vehicle. The differences are significant!    • PNCC "Palmy" City Council  Glass Rec...  

Not many councils in New Zealand still operate their own fleet of trucks when it comes to waste collection but the PNCC has not given into contracting out this service to big private operators, despite three big players also operating in town.

A massive thank you to fantastic driver with slick dance moves for letting me film him working and talking to me about the truck and the collection/recycling process while he worked Thank you.


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