Labour sets timeframe on single-use plastics
Apple stickers, plastic cutlery and single-use coffee cups are on the way out if Labour wins the election.
Labour leader Jacinda Ardern announced the party’s waste policy yesterday, which includes a $50 million fund to research alternatives to other single-use plastic items that don’t have current substitutes.
The Government has previously announced its intention to ban more single-use plastics, but did not put a timeframe on it. Businesses will have as long as five years to find alternatives to common plastic items like drink stirrers, plastic cutlery, apple stickers, some disposable cups and lids, produce bags and straws.
‘‘By 2025 we will phase out single use and hard to recycle plastic items such as drink stirrers, cutlery, some cups and lids, produce bags, straws [with an exemption for those with disabilities], cotton buds and stickers on produce, such as those on individual fruit items,’’ Ardern said.