Ban the plastic bottle campaign

Plastic bottles spend a few minutes in our hands but a lifetime harming the environment, and Greenpeace wants them banned.

Greenpeace says New Zealand could become the first country in the world to ban plastic drink bottles, launching a mission to banish them from grocery shelves forever.

Every day, New Zealanders consume about 5 million packaged drinks – but only 35 to 45 per cent of ‘‘recyclable’’ beverage containers are actually recycled. Last year, single-use shopping bags were banned by the Government using the Waste Management Act 2008 – and that same law could be used to ban single-use plastic bottles.

‘‘This is the next logical step, if we are serious about protecting our wildlife and ourselves from the scourge of single-use plastic,’’ Greenpeace campaigner Holly Dove said. ‘‘We can be world leaders on this.’’

Greenpeace’s new campaign is called ‘‘ban the bottle’’, and it has launched a petition for New Zealanders to get behind the idea.

Drink manufacturers make and sell an estimated one billion single-use plastic bottles every year in New Zealand.

‘‘Drinks companies continue to push the message that we can recycle our way out of our tidal wave of plastic waste,’’ Dove said.

‘‘The truth is we can’t. The only real solution is to design waste out of the system, and cut the amount of plastic that we are producing.’’

Greenpeace says the country’s failing recycling and waste system means a good proportion of this plastic waste finds its way into landfills and the sea.

‘‘Single-use plastic is choking our wildlife, 90 per cent of NZ seabirds have eaten plastic and birds like toroa [the royal albatross] are plucking it out of the ocean and feeding it to their young,’’ Dove said.

Plastics does not decompose, it breaks down into smaller and smaller bits – microplastics – which are showing up in the fish that we eat.

The coalition Government made a great start with banning single-use plastic bags, but the job was not done, Dove said.

‘‘We need them to make sure that these companies stop bottling their products in single-use plastics, and start producing alternative options for their customers.’’

Not everyone believes it is possible. Packaging Forum programmes manager Adele Rose said banning plastic bottles in New Zealand is ‘‘unrealistic’’.

‘‘If you think about everything that is imported and distributed in plastic bottles, from 100ml to 3 litres, it’s unrealistic to ban all ready-to-drink items that are packaging in this size range.

‘‘For example, protein drinks used for medical purposes and sold from pharmacies ‘ready-todrink’ would be included in a ban like this. It’s not just including what is sold at the dairy or the supermarket,’’ Rose said.

It is legally possible to ban plastic bottles under the Waste Minimisation ACT 2008, Rose said.

‘‘However, there would be