How to sort NZ’s plastic mess
Answer to growing problem may be packaging that doesn’t need to be discarded
New Zealand’s mounting plastic woes should be tackled by swapping our “take, make, waste” approach to packaging with one where nothing gets thrown out.
That’s the big take-away of the first study of the country’s entire plastic packaging system.
It underlined how even radically improving our current recycling system wouldn’t fix all headaches.
Backed by major industry players including Coca-Cola Amatil and Countdown, the Sustainable Business Network study estimated that the material value of 95 per cent of plastic packaging was lost to the economy.
Instead of being turned into something useful, it ended up in landfill, incinerated, or in our ocean, cities and countryside.
A lack of recycling facilities meant the bulk of plastics collected from our kerbs were being shipped overseas — $13.1 million worth was exported last year.
The study urged a “circular economy” approach, in which the life cycles of materials were maximised, then all of it was reused, so nothing was wasted.
There had been an explosion in the use of plastic packaging in the last 60 years, study leader James Griffin said.
“Unfortunately, systems to properly manage it have not kept pace. This has led to a global waste and pollution crisis . . . the stresses in our system were highlighted when China effectively closed its doors to the world’s waste.”
New Zealand had shipped 15 million tonnes of waste plastic to Chinese processing plants each year. But that nation’s ban on 24 types of foreign waste, which kicked in this year, forced recyclers to look for buyers elsewhere as stockpiles grew in the country.
The study suggested measures to lift recycling rates, such as reducing the types and formats of plastics used, more on-shore processing facilities, consistent collections around the country, increasing demand for recycled materials and a container deposit scheme.
Businesses needed to audit the types and amounts of plastic packaging they used — and that included finding out the types of plastics used.
They also needed to set bold targets to design out problematic packaging and enable dramatically improved recycling, while supporting those suppliers that used high levels of recycled content.
The business sector also needs to work together to expand the market for recycled materials and develop product stewardship schemes for rigid plastics.
The Government needed to develop and implement a comprehensive plastic packaging strategy, with bold and ambitious targets.
Griffin cautioned that, although such measures could improve the situation, recycling alone could not solve all plastic packaging issues.
“There needs to be a wider approach, for example, problematic and unnecessary plastic packaging needs to be identified and eliminated from our supply chains,” he said.
“Reuse models need to be adopted and scaled as an alternative to single-use plastics.”
Unnecessary plastic packaging needs to be identified. James Griffin
Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage said work was already under way on some of what was recommended.
“Manufacturers, retailers, the resource recovery sector, councils and consumers all have key roles to play and government leadership is required,” Sage said. “We need manufacturers to be doing much more, faster and manufacturers, retailers and consumers to drive change up the supply chain.”
This year, Sage announced a work programme that included improving national data, investing more strategically, supporting processing of recovered materials within the country and expanding the waste disposal levy to all landfills. The levy largely applied to landfills accepting household waste, and expanding it to all landfills should reduce waste in the commercial and industrial sector.
The Ministry for the Environment was developing a circular economy strategy identifying sectors to target investment, and Sage had also directed officials to progress mandatory product stewardship schemes for tyres and lithium batteries as a priority, with other schemes to follow.