The plant is the first part of a regional strategy to provide a local recycling solution for glass bottles and jars collected from three local government areas within the MidWaste group of councils - Greater Taree City Council, Gloucester Shire Council and Great Lakes Council. The second part sees the recycled crushed glass used in Great Lakes Council's roads.

The new plant, funded by the Australian Food and Grocery Council's Packaging Stewardship Forum (PSF) and JR Richards & Sons, will recycle more than 4,500 tonnes of glass collected through council kerbside recycling systems annually (equivalent to nearly 25 million stubbies).

In opening the facility, Federal Member for Lyne, Rob Oakeshott MP said, "This is a great regional solution. The glass collected by councils can now be processed locally and used in regional construction projects. It's a win for the environment and the economy and a model that I would recommend to others."

JR Richards & Sons will crush the collected glass to a specification standard suitable for use in a range of alternative local markets including road base, asphalt, concrete and pipe embedment as a partial sand replacement.

Greg Turner, JR Richards & Sons said "The decision to process and re-use the glass locally was taken because we believe this delivered the most sustainable outcome as we no longer have to transport it long distances as we have in the past. This reduces our carbon footprint."

PSF Chairman, Alec Wagstaff said the use of recycled crushed glass in the road construction sector provides one of the most significant opportunities to dramatically boost glass recycling rates nationally.

"Through our kerbside recycling systems we're collecting more than 76% of glass beverage containers annually but due to breakage we're recycling just over half back into new containers. That means around 120,000 tonnes is either stockpiled or going to waste in our landfills annually," said Mr Wagstaff.

"The road construction sector uses millions of tonnes of sand and aggregate each year. By using recycled crushed glass as a replacement for sand, we could reduce the extraction of sand, eliminate current glass waste, save landfill space and provide ongoing local markets for the glass we collect. There is now momentum building in New South Wales as councils see the benefits of using recycled materials in civil engineering projects," Mr Wagstaff said.

Member for Paterson, The Hon Bob Baldwin, also announced a first for regional NSW, the public demonstration of the use of recycled crushed glass (from the Tuncurry plant) in two sections of road pavement within Great Lakes Council.

"I congratulate Great Lakes Council, the beverage industry and relevant state authorities for supporting this innovative regional initiative. This is a great example of what can be achieved when industry and all sectors of government work together," said Mr Baldwin.

The demonstration project is a partnership between the PSF, Great Lakes Council, the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water NSW, the Roads and Traffic Authority NSW and the Roads & Transport Directorate of the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia (IPWEA).

Construction of two sections of road pavement will commence in March 2011 and will result in an asphalt pavement section approximately 100 metres in length and a granular pavement section approximately 750 metres in length containing recycled crushed glass product at Glen Ora Road, Nabiac and Tuloa Avenue (between Coorilla Street and Mirreen Street) Hawks Nest, in Great Lakes Council LGA. The construction will use an estimated 100 tonnes of recycled crushed glass from the new JR Richard & Sons glass reprocessing facility in road pavement (asphalt and granular pavement) within NSW.