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11 January 2000 |
Glass From Streets To Ships
Glass collected from Christchurch streets is being used to sandblast ships at Lyttelton.
Eighteen months ago all waste glass recovered in Canterbury was transported to Auckland for recyling. Now, with the introduction of kerbside recycling in Christchurch in conjunction with the establishment of the Recovered Materials Foundation, local uses have been developed successfully for the glass.
One use is in sandblasting. Over four days, Tank Maintenance Ltd will use 40 tonnes of locally crushed glass to sandblast the hull of the Captaine Wallis, a container ship in dry dock at the Port of Lyttelton.
The manager of Tank Maintenance Ltd, Grant Camp, said that it was the third ship it has sandblasted in the last 18 months using "BlastGlass" – a screened crushed glass product derived from the bottles and jars Christchurch householders put out for collection in green crates each week.
"We have found that this product performs better than traditionally used sand for sandblasting. Essentially this is due to the wide range of different product sizes for very coarse to fine sandblasting," Mr Camp said.
The company has been sandblasting and painting ships at Lyttelton in the last 30 years.
Photo opportunity: The Captaine Wallis is in dry dock at Lyttelton now and is due out at 4pm today. The ship will be painted next.
For further information:
David Gee, journalist 371 8949