The facts on recycling our rising tide of waste

Waste and recycling has been a hot topic over the past month, and rightly so. With the amount of rubbish going to landfills increasing, stockpiles of plastic and tyres growing and contamination of kerbside recycling continuing, it’s no surprise.

Unfortunately, however, some recent reports after the release of policy remit decisions from Local Government New Zealand’s annual meeting in July became hijacked by misinformation and scaremongering, with headlines stating ‘‘costs could quadruple’’, and the assertion that local bodies are seeking to raise the waste levy from $10 to $140, both misleading.

Much of the discussion has centred on the WasteMINZ’s Local Government Waste Management Manifesto, which LGNZ passed a remit to support. That manifesto provides a clear way forward to address waste issues through a modern waste strategy, the expansion and raising of the waste disposal levy, better information about our waste, a container deposit scheme and mandatory product stewardship.

Currently, only a $10 waste levy is included in the charge per tonne to dispose at class 1 landfills, and is used to fund waste-minimisation projects. However, class 1 landfills make up just 11 per cent of all landfills, and receive only 30 per cent of total waste. Our waste levy is also one of the lowest of any country with a landfill levy.

Landfill costs vary greatly, from as little as $50 a tonne of waste in Auckland up to $300 on the West Coast, but on average are much lower than you’d find in Australia or Europe.

The Eunomia study cited in the WasteMINZ report looked at the benefits of raising the waste levy to a range of prices, and found that extending it to all classes of landfill, and raising the rate to $140 for ‘‘active waste’’ that either decays or contaminates land, could reduce total waste by 3.5 million tonnes, create 9000 jobs and raise an extra

$170m a year in revenue for waste minimisation and strategic regional infrastructure.

Those figures were used in the waste management manifesto to show the potential benefits of a levy increase, rather than as agreed policy of WasteMINZ or LGNZ. We know the levy has to go up but, as stated in the waste levy section of the manifesto, ‘‘while there is general agreement [among the sector] that the levy should go up, there is less consensus on what the rate should be, and how quickly it should go up . . .’’.

The amount of rubbish sent to levied landfill sites grew by 39 per cent between 2010 and 2017, according to the Ministry for the Environment. At

$10 a tonne, it’s obvious the levy is too low to discourage this growth, and too low to fund facilities to adequately process our increasing amount of diverted waste and recycling that is piling up.

However, many councils can see the social and environmental benefits of better waste management, and are committed to minimising landfill waste with initiatives large and small.

WASTE INITIATIVES

■ New wheelie bins with clip-top lids to prevent recycling blowing around the streets have been introduced by Porirua City Council, and in Tauranga a new kerbside glass-recycling solution is being rolled out by the council, to be followed by a full kerbside waste and recycling service introduced to all residential properties by 2021.

■ In Te Awamutu nearly 19 tonnes of e-waste – anything with a battery or a plug – has been saved from the landfill by the Waipa District Council, with more than 2450 appliances stripped down and processed into products ranging from bathroom tiles to plastic piping.

■ Auckland Council implemented a 2040 zerowaste vision in 2012, which has reduced kerbside waste by 10 per cent in the past four years.

These initiatives show there is a drive towards better, more modern, community-driven waste management. However, a collective strategy is needed, which is where the waste management manifesto comes in.

The current New Zealand Waste Strategy 2010 (NZWS) presents two guiding principles, but sets no goals, targets, timetables, actions or responsibilities. The manifesto has appropriately called for a revision of the waste strategy, outlining what it would achieve, how it should work and what the priorities should be.

It also calls for better waste data, a container deposit scheme and mandatory product stewardship.

Product stewardship is particularly relevant to many of New Zealand’s waste issues, with tyre mountains growing throughout the country. Mandatory product stewardship would place responsibility on producers and sellers for managing products at the end of their life, such as tyres, e-waste, agricultural chemicals and plastics.

We need to make better decisions locally about waste management, and that starts with waste minimisation. I encourage you to give the manifesto a read, look at the waste and recycling issues in your area and support both local and central government in their efforts towards better waste management and recycling.

The waste levy needs to goup– but how much, and how quickly?