Recycling glass will be plain sailing for boaties at the Tauranga Bridge Marina thanks to a grant from the Glass Packaging Forum.

The $15,600 grant has seen five bottle banks conveniently placed along the marina, allowing members and staff easy access to glass recycling.

The bottle banks, which were placed on Friday, July 6, are expected to collect over 100 tonnes of colour-sorted glass bottles and jars per year.

Tauranga Bridge Marina operations and services co-ordinator Anna Barnes says as a sustainably focused marina they were very keen to improve their glass recycling.

The marina is an active member of The Clean Marina programme and the bottle banks will allow them to meet the programme requirements, Anna says.

The bottle banks are for use by marina staff and members, who will need to separate their glass bottles and jars by colour (clear, green and brown) when recycling, she says.

The marina is at 75 per cent occupancy and is expected to increase during the summer boating season, further increasing the demand for glass recycling, Anna says.

Glass Packaging Forum scheme manager Dominic Salmon says the bottle banks help fulfill the Forum's key focus of ensuring glass bottles and jars stay out of landfill.

'Tauranga's close proximity to New Zealand's only glass bottle and jar manufacturer O-I New Zealand, in Auckland, means it is very efficient to recycle their glass. It's also great to see the marina taking a strong stance on sustainability, especially considering glass makes up over 85 per cent of their recyclables,” says Dominic.

Funding for grants comes from levies paid by members of the Forum's voluntary product stewardship scheme, he says.

'This is the perfect example of what the funds are for; keeping glass out of landfill and going back to the furnace to be recycled.”