LETTER OF THE WEEK

In the 1970s, recycling was part of the Government’s answer to the energy crisis. At the time, I was leading the response at the DSIR’s chemistry division.

A process was developed at the laboratory level for taking plastics and decolourising them, and although there was insufficient suitable raw material, a recycling plant was built at Ōtaki to use colourless polyethylene. It survived for many years.

From this exercise I conclude we will not be able to recycle all our plastics because the markets are not there. There is a limit to how many buckets people will buy.

To make recycling work on a big scale, a continual technological battle has to be fought, and the money is not there to do it for small companies.

To solve a problem like this, the R&D funding has to persist. If a programme is

terminated midstream, all that has been invested in it is lost.

If the Government wants New Zealand to make a contribution, it has to decide to do it, devote the funding to get it done and see it through. Even if it is not used now, the knowledge remains good, provided it was complete.

Ian Miller (Belmont, Lower Hutt)