Plastic answer in sight
A Lower Hutt firm believes it has the solution for New Zealand’s growing pile of plastic drink bottles.
Flight Recycling is offering to recycle all our polyethylene terephthalate (known as PET), a plastic commonly used in drink bottles, food containers and meat packaging.
On Friday, company representatives met with Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage to lobby for regulatory support.
Flight chief executive Keith Smith said the firm’s $17 million plant could potentially deal with all the PET in New Zealand.
He estimated there was 30,000 tonnes of PET in the country, and somewhere between a quarter and a third was being recycled.
The rest goes into landfills or makes its way into our rivers and streams.
With China no longer taking our plastic waste, Smith said there was a golden opportunity to commit to greater PET recycling.
It would, however, need a change of attitude from local councils and better government support for recycling, he said.
‘‘In this country, we need a regulatory framework, there is no doubt about it.’’
After the meeting, Sage did not reply directly when asked if she favoured that approach. ‘‘It’s too early to comment on policy and regulations but a lot of work is going on behind the scenes on how to tackle problems in waste and recycling.’’
Flight recycled 2000 tonnes over the past year but can increase its capacity to recycle PET.
It turns the bottles and food containers into flake, which it in turn uses to make bottles and other products.
Recycling PET reduces the amount imported, stops it choking landfills and creates jobs, Smith said.
The family-owned company received a $4 million grant from the Waste Minimisation Fund and Smith said it wants to crank up recycling for the good of the country.
He told the minister there were many barriers to recycling PET – separating it from other plastics was difficult and bottles were often contaminated with other types of plastic and wraps.
The lid and neck tie on plastic bottles is often made from another plastic which has to be removed.
PET can be recycled to 100 per cent of its original quality, as long as other types of plastics are removed.
Sage said she was ‘‘impressed’’ by what Flight was doing and it needed to be replicated across the country.
‘‘We absolutely need more onshore processing and the Waste Minimisation Fund, which has provided funding support to Flight, is there to back projects like this.’’
Businesses which used New Zealand made, recycled PET plastic for their packaging and consumers who asked for it, could help reduce the use of problem plastics that were more difficult to reuse, she said.
Labour list MP Ginny Andersen said she was ‘‘excited’’ by the idea of a Lower Hutt firm recycling all New Zealand’s PET.
It would decrease the amount of plastic going into landfills and would create a significant number of jobs in Lower Hutt.
‘‘We absolutely need more onshore processing.’’ Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage