Councils committing plastics to landfill as waste market tightens

Sunday, 21 April 2019

Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage says manufacturers and retailers have a part to play in filling the gap left by international waste processors who are taking less of New Zealand's recyclable waste.

The comments come following the recent announcements that Hutt City and Upper Hutt City councils' recycling services would no longer be accepting types 3 to 7 plastics.

Both councils cited changes to international recycling markets such as China's National Sword programme which has restricted the import of waste products.

Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage says manufacturers and retailers need to help find uses for plastic types which are now being accepted in lower quantities by overseas markets.

Sage said there was insufficient demand for plastics coded 3 to 7 domestically and abroad.

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'Manufacturers and retailers need to consider either phasing out use of these low value materials (4s and 6s) for packaging or finding uses for them and reprocessing more of them here in New Zealand. Manufacturers and retailers must be part of the solution to waste issues.'

She said New Zealand needed to become more resilient to variations in the international waste market which would change again.

In the long term, the country needed to embrace systems that allowed for reuse and reduction before materials got to the resource recovery stage.

While Upper Hutt City Council stopped accepting types 3 to 7 plastics earlier this month, those materials were already going to landfill. Hutt City said it understood there were markets for types 3 to 7 plastics until May at which point it would stop accepting them.

Plastics coded 3 to 7 are used in products such as plumbing fittings, shopping bags, toys, outdoor furniture and polystyrene packaging. Types 1 and 2 plastics - used for soft drink and milk bottles - are processed domestically.

Other councils such as Porirua City had no plans stop collecting types 3 to 7 plastics but were being sent to landfill until new markets opened for the material, said its water and waste manager David Down.

Wellington City Council spokeswoman Victoria Barton-Chapple said the organisation had already stopped collecting most of the types 3 to 7 plastics for recycling with the exception of type 5 which was sent to Malaysia. It was possible some type 7 plastics were also being sent offshore, she said.

Kāpiti Coast District Council infrastructure services group manager Sean Mallon said they would not stop collecting types 3 to 7 plastics but did not say what was being done with them.