Mayors want levy to cut use of plastic bags

"The environmental costs of dealing with plastic bags are ultimately borne by ratepayers.'' Dunedin mayor Dave Cull

Pressure is mounting on central government to impose a plastic bag levy as mayors from three of the country’s biggest cities launch a campaign calling for support on a mandatory charge on single-use bags.

The open letter, signed by the mayors of Dunedin, Auckland, and Wellington, echoed Wellington mayor Justin Lester’s previous request that the Government impose a levy, or step aside and allow local government to do it.

‘‘When the UK brought in just a 5p levy in 2015, they’ve seen an 86 per cent decrease in the number of plastic bags going to landfills. This has been proven to work overseas,’’ Lester said.

Local Government New Zealand president Lawrence Yule said a poll in 2015 showed 89 per cent of councils supported a levy.

Auckland mayor Phil Goff said Kiwis had to stop the flow of hundreds of millions of nonbiodegradable plastic bags dumped in landfill every year, after figures revealed Auckland dumped 17,000 tonnes of soft plastics last year.

Dunedin mayor Dave Cull said residents were taking what action they could but central government action was needed.

‘‘The truth is they [plastic bags] need to be stopped at the source. Local government is only empowered to do so much and we need central government to step up as well,’’ Cull said.

‘‘The environmental costs of dealing with plastic bags are ultimately borne by ratepayers. A levy would not only help to reduce the problem at source but levy funding could be returned to councils for them to spend on further waste minimisation and environmental cleanup measures.’’

Wellington City Council waste operations manager Adrian Mitchell knows only too well the cost on ratepayers, with $20,000 spent on fencing to catch bags blown out of the city’s southern landfill last year, and another $18,000 budgeted for more fencing this year.

The call follows one industry leader bashing the Ministry for the Environment for relying on research and data commissioned by an industry association to inform policy decisions.

Matthew Luxon, who runs waste consultancy Envision, said reliance on the Packaging Forum, whose board consisted of representatives from the likes of Coca-cola Amatil, DB Breweries and Lion, was a case of ‘‘the fox being in charge of the hen house’’.

‘‘I don’t think the industry body that is representing the producers of the litter should be then counting it, and they don’t release the results. We have never been able to get the full report on that litter survey, it’s only a summary report they released,’’ Luxon said.

A ministry spokeswoman said there had been no government studies into the amount of soft plastics being dumped in landfill nationally, ’’however, the ministry has used outcomes of research carried out by third parties to inform policy development. Further research would be required to inform any future regulatory actions’’.

Recently, Associate Environment Minister Scott Simpson announced funding for the first independent national litter survey.

This will replace the National Litter Survey commissioned by the Packaging Forum, figures from which Environment Minister Nick Smith has previously quoted as justification for not imposing a levy.