Recycling’s rules just got murky
Plastic found in Antarctica
Ones, twos, and fives are all good, while threes, fours, sixes and sevens are bad – and don’t get started on bloody meat trays.
The capital’s once simple world of recycling has just taken a turn to the confusing as Wellington City Council prescribes what plastics it will collect for recycling, and what plastics have to go to the tip.
With it getting increasingly hard to send plastics overseas, it is essentially only those plastics that can be recycled in New Zealand that will be accepted.
On the surface, it seems easy: Plastics coded one, two or five can be recycled. And the rest – roughly 10 per cent of what is currently sent for recycling – goes in with the rubbish.
But then there are the meat trays.
According to the council, they can be made of either plastic one (good) or plastic three (bad).
But because they are hard to tell from one another in the sorting process, and plastic three could contaminate a batch of plastic one, the council rule is to send meat trays to the tip.
For all other plastics, ideally, the number is printed on the item inside a triangle.
The system was already in place in other regions around New Zealand, the council said.
But the council has also confirmed that the entire process banks on the goodwill of people as collectors would still take recycling with the incorrect types of plastic, and there were no plans to fine people for misbehaviour.
The new rules come into effect on July 20, amid Plastic Free July.
Plastics one, two, and five are found in the likes of drink bottles, shampoo and cleaning product
Researchers have found plastic in Antarctica’s food chain for the first time.
A tiny, insect-like animal called a collembolan has been found floating on a piece of polystyrene, and polystyrene was detected in its gut.
This means plastic may now pose a threat to polar ecosystems.
Waikato University senior lecturer Dr Charles Lee said polystyrene beads and similar packaging had been banned at Scott Base for years as part of a long-standing policy.
‘‘It is extremely unlikely to be found in the place where New Zealand has responsibility.’’
In the new study, published by the Royal Society, researchers found the tiny polystyrene fragments inside the gut of the common Antarctic collembolan, Cryptopygus antarcticus.
They traced the fragments as originating from a large piece of polystyrene foam found stranded on King George Island in the South Shetland Islands.
bottles, and icecream tubs. They can be recycled in New Zealand.
But the other bad types of plastics – for example, biscuit trays, squeezable tomato sauce bottles, and packaging for fresh pasta – had to be sent overseas for recycling.
Those overseas markets were oversupplied and volatile, the council said.
Roughly 90 per cent of the plastic currently put out was already numbers one, two and five.
‘‘We need to work collectively to reduce the amount of plastic packaged products we buy, and look at how we can reuse and repurpose those we have,’’ said councillor Laurie Foon, who holds the city’s waste minimisation portfolio.
First a global financial crisis, now a worldwide pandemic – Johnsonville residents must be wondering what next will put the death knell in the redevelopment plans for their mall.
The long-awaited redevelopment of the suburban Wellington mall – described by a Trip Advisor reviewer a few years ago as one of the worst in the country – was first proposed more than a decade ago.
By the time the project was approved by Wellington City Council in 2009, the financial crisis had put a dent in the plans, and the proposal was then scaled back.
Now, with a fresh resource consent issued for the redevelopment just two years ago and ratepayer-funded road upgrades made, the coronavirus pandemic has once again put the project on ice.
Far from pressing on with development plans, stores in the Johnsonville Shopping Centre are closing, with other retailers in the area planning to do the same.
Michael
Hill
Jeweller and
Cracker have already shut their doors, and Paper Plus will do the same on July 31.
Across the road, The Warehouse has announced it is closing its Johnsonville store, further denting the area’s retail scene.
City councillor Jenny Condie, who promised to keep pressure on building owners Stride Property Group when she ran for mayor at last year’s election, conceded the fight was all but over for the time being.
‘‘It’s really unfortunate the project has been hit by the pandemic in the same way as it was hit by the global financial crisis.’’
Condie understood Stride’s board would need to make a decision on what to do about the development plans in the wake of the pandemic.
During her mayoral campaign, Condie said she would aim to use new legislation – enabling councils to acquire land through Urban Development Agencies (UDAs) – to push for a ‘‘mixeduse’’ redevelopment of the area.
However, the pandemic had put a dent in those plans.
‘‘Johnsonville really needs that new development, but we have to be a bit understanding that we’re in the middle of a global shock and it’s going to take time while Stride reviews its investment portfolio.’’
Stride Property Group shopping centres general manager Roy Stansfield said while significant progress had been made on development plans, the project was now ‘‘under review’’.
‘‘Given the current uncertain economic climate brought about by Covid-19, this project remains under review until the market outlook is clearer.’’
Johnsonville Community Association committee member Simon Pleasants said the current situation was a sad state of affairs.
Initial plans for the redevelopment involved a $300 million upgrade, tripling the mall’s size from 10,000-square metres to a two-storey, 32,000sqm facility.
That was downgraded in 2017 to a $150m project, increasing the mall’s size to 26,000sqm.