NZ’s wasted opportunity

Action from politicians in the environmental sphere is often promised in the form of vague policies, wellintended meetings, tweets and press statements. This is why I was pleasantly surprised when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that the Government will be moving to ban plastic cotton buds, single-use plastic cutlery and noncompostable fruit stickers in response to Dr Juliet Gerrard’s report Rethinking Plastics in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The report gives recommendations on the basis that New Zealand will eventually phase out all plastic waste – a daunting task. It’s hard to imagine a world without plastic waste.

This is why we are seeing such specific prioritisation of single-use plastic products. The world isn’t going to be saved by a lack of fruit stickers and cotton buds, but it sure is a start. Additionally, these are some of the easier products to phase out due to the range of biodegradable planet-friendly alternatives that exist already.

Waste emissions only contribute 5 per cent of New Zealand’s overall greenhouse gas emissions by sector, dwarfed by huge emissions from agriculture and energy which are mainly a result of road transport and unsustainable practices in the dairy industry. Nonetheless, a move toward reducing waste is not only good for the global climate but can have less obvious effects. Less pollution results in less threat to our native birds’ habitats and diets, which restores our indigenous ecosystem.

Native forest has the ability to sequester carbon and a healthier environment can remind more people how important it is to be reducing the impacts of climate change. (Have you ever looked out onto the bush or a bay and thought ‘‘nah, this isn’t worth saving’’? I didn’t think so.)

However, if we’re actually going to see any bigger impact from this change, it is going to have to be followed by something stronger. Namely, onshore recycling plants with the power to actually deal with our plastic waste from New Zealand in New Zealand.

Dr Gerrard’s report recommends that we ‘‘strategically invest in or incentivise development of systems and infrastructure to deal with our own plastic waste onshore’’ to meet 2025 obligations.

Previously, New Zealanders had the privilege of seeing off our plastic waste when the yellow bin lid closed, as it was shipped to China. As of January 1, 2018, around $21 million of New Zealand’s waste has to find a home elsewhere.

The ministry stated that, following China’s policy change, the options for New Zealand were ‘‘improving onshore processing and finding alternative overseas markets’’.

There’s a difference between banning certain plastics and building recycling plants. One prevents the plastic entering our system in the first place, the other deals with existing plastics. However, if bans are going to be effective, we urgently need to see the existing waste dealt with onshore. Furthermore, the question of what happens to the biodegradable alternatives to our plastic must be raised. Only certain commercial composting facilities have the capacity to process compostable packaging and cutlery, at least in an easily accessible way that doesn’t include preapproval of certain materials.

This ban is great, but I want to say it just seems a bit flashy. The plastic bag ban received global media attention, and this is guaranteed to give us more. Onshore recycling plants aren’t as shiny as plastic bans, but they are a necessity embarrassingly lacking in ‘‘100% Pure’’ NZ.