By Gary Farrow
Over half of the mayors in New Zealand have now signed an open letter to central government asking for a plastic bag levy to be mandatory throughout the country.
Wellington Mayor Justin Lester started circulating the open letter, which has so far attracted the support of 42 of New Zealand's 67 mayors.
But Hamilton Mayor Andrew King has not yet committed to the growing movement against single-use plastic bags.
"Waste reduction across the city, and the country, is an important issue," King said.
"I congratulate those business owners who have voluntarily introduced a charging system for single-use plastic bags, and the Hamilton retailers who are part of the Soft Plastic Recycling Initiative.
"I also support those families and individuals who are choosing to reduce their household waste through the way they shop.
"On a personal level I don't believe it's the role of our Council to demand a new nationwide tax to change consumer behaviour. It may be that the wider Council has a different view, but I have not yet had the chance to discuss this with other elected members. As Mayor, I need to have that discussion."
Seven elected members of Hamilton City Council had told Hamilton News they were personally in favour of a mandatory nationwide plastic bag levy.
They were deputy mayor Martin Gallagher, and councillors Angela O'Leary, Rob Pascoe, Dave Macpherson, Geoff Taylor, Siggi Henry and Paula Southgate.
Councillors Gary Mallett and Mark Bunting were against the levy for different reasons. Mallett said there was nothing wrong with plastic bags, whereas Bunting said they should be banned outright.
Councillors Leo Tooman and James Casson couldn't be reached for comment, and Phillip Yeung was on leave due to illness.
If a decision of whether to support the signing of the letter for a national plastic bag levy were put on the table in Council today, it would theoretically contain a majority of at least 7 out of 12 sitting members pledging support for the request for Hamilton's mayor to sign the letter to be acted upon.
The number of Waikato mayors signing the letter is increasing. Rotorua, Hauraki, Thames-Coromandel and South Waikato have all signed.
In July 2015, Hamilton mayor of the time Julie Hardaker represented the city at a Local Government New Zealand conference in Rotorua, casting Hamilton City Council's democratically decided vote in favour of a potential future plastic bag levy.
Trent Fowler, compliance manager at city waters for Hamilton City Council, said Hamilton was in fact the first city in the country to adopt the Love New Zealand programme.
The scheme advocates the recycling of soft plastics, including plastic bags, by placing them in collection bins at seventeen supermarkets in the city.
The material is then transported to Abilities Incorporated in Auckland, where people with disabilities are employed to sort through the collection.
Hamilton City Council's waste minimisation advisor Charlotte Catmur said the soft plastics are then sent overseas.
"From Auckland at the moment they're actually being sent to Melbourne where they're being processed into outdoor benches, flooring, materials that are pretty long lasting but could then be recycled again themselves," she said.
"There is, obviously, a look at getting a plant up and running here, but that is being organised through the Packaging Forum, so we are linked into that scheme at the moment."
Mr Fowler said from May 2016 to April 2017, 5293 bags worth of soft plastics were collected from Hamilton for recycling.
That amounts to about 20.7 tonnes of soft plastic having been recycled in that time by Hamilton alone.
However, he acknowledged that a greater amount would probably be being sent to landfill.
In fact, 1768 tonnes of soft plastic waste goes to landfill in Hamilton every year.
Ms Catmur added one of the biggest challenges dealing with soft plastics was the cost of doing the processing, and collecting the necessary volumes to make it financially viable.
But Green Party MP Denise Roche said even though it was having a very small impact, the supermarket recycling scheme had cost taxpayers around the country $365,869 since it was started in 2015, so was effectively a waste of money.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Plastic Bag Free Hamilton East is one of several local groups banding together to encourage people to think twice about using plastic bags at all.
"We want to just cut them out before they even get into the shopping cycle," Sarah McCullagh said as part of the initiative.
Ms McCullagh's family were already following good practices to minimise their use of plastic bags, but she wanted to take it a step further and start sharing an awareness with the wider community.
Her aim was to make people think twice and use Boomerang Bags, which are made by local volunteers using recyclable materials, and are intended to be used a large number of times and replace plastic bags completely in people's daily habits.
"Shopping myself, I'd see people just act like robots, really, in that pay and checkout process," McCullagh said.
"While you're swiping your card and putting your pin in, the shopping assistant's putting your things into a bag, and it's just all a part of that cycle."
When a customer is bearing a Boomerang Bag, the idea is that will break the cycle and not only encourage them to use less plastic bags, but for the checkout operator to do the same.
"The onus is as much on the business as it is on the customers to change things, and we just wanted to help make that change as easy as possible," McCullagh said.
At an entry level, she added, she believed it was the easiest way to get people to consciously change their pattern of behaviour using plastic bags, and hopefully make people think twice about plastic use in other areas of their life as well.
"I think a levy is a perfectly fine place to start and I'm very in favour of it," she said regarding the nationwide campaign for a mandatory plastic bag levy.
A drastic decrease in the use of plastic bags by customers at The Warehouse and Pak 'n Save when the chains started applying a small charge to their use was one example of how a levy is effective.
Plastic Bag Free Hamilton East collaborates with Hamilton Farmers' Market to encourage the minimisation of the use of plastic bags there, too, using the fact that customers there are conscious shoppers as a springboard.
When Hamilton News asked her for comment, market manager Sarah Schwarz said she wasn't surprised that Mayor Andrew King had not yet chosen to sign the open letter to central government for a mandatory levy on plastic bags.
"I think New Zealand is really moving very slowly when it comes to reducing plastic and taking care of recycling and the whole garbage management," she said.
"I guess that's because they didn't really need to do that properly before, because you were just a country with a lot of room and not very many people."
Other countries in Europe and North America had to make sure they were pushing improvements in plastic management as they were literally becoming overwhelmed because of population, she said.
When she arrived in New Zealand from Europe herself, she was surprised that New Zealand, with its clean green image, still had not taken the appropriate action to deal with the problem.
"But I think that the Hamiltonians are ready to step up and make changes themselves," Ms Schwarz said.
"That's what we want to show at the market, is that people are willing to change and not use as much plastic anymore when they are offered alternatives."
Hamilton Farmers' Market has itself almost seen an elimination of plastic bags being used by its vendors and customers since Schwarz took up the role of manager there in March last year.
She started by addressing the vendors, giving them other options including Boomerang Bags, and encouraging them not to put produce in plastic bags before putting it in a customer's reusable bag that they had brought to the market.
This stands as another example of how every organisation from companies to small independent local vendors have a role to play in the process.
"Plastic bags should cost something so that people start thinking about the cost of it and that they don't want to spend 20, 30 or 50 cents maybe - really bringing up that price," she said of the potential nationwide plastic bag levy.
That was the approach used in Europe and Canada, and Schwarz thinks it is the best way to affect buyer behaviour, and make them remember to bring their reusable bags.
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MAYORS WHO HAVE SIGNED THE OPEN LETTER
Neil Holdom New Plymouth District Council Y
Wayne Guppy Upper Hutt Y
Grant Smith Palmerston North City Council Y
Steve Chadwick Rotorua District Council Y
Rachel Reese Nelson City Council Y
Hon John Carter QSO Far North District Council Y
David Ayers Waimakariri District Council Y
Sam Broughton Selwyn District Council Y
Sheryl Mai Whangarei District Council Y
Lyn Patterson Masterton District Council Y
Dave Cull Dunedin City Council Y
Lawrence Yule Hastings District Council Y
Sandra Goudie Thames-Coromandel Y
Phil Goff Auckland City Council Y
Justin Lester Wellington City Council Y
Jim Boult Queenstown Lakes District Council Y
Meng Foon Gisborne District Council Y
Alex Walker Central Hawke's Bay Y
Helen Worboys Manawatu District Council Y
Michael Feyen Horowhenua District Council Y
Greg Gent Kaipara District Council Y
Andy Watson Rangitikei District Council Y
Craig Little Wairoa District Council Y
Bryan Cadogan Clutha District Council Y
John Booth Carterton Y
Lianne Dalziel Christchurch Y
Garry Howard Buller District Y
Ray Wallace Hutt City Y
Tim Shadbolt Invercargill City Council Y
Winton Dalley Hurunui Y
K Gurunathan Kapiti Y
Hamish McDouall Wanganui Y
Malcolm Campbell Kawerau District Y
John Tregidga Hauraki District Y
John Forbes Opotiki District Council Y
John Leggett Marlborough District Council Y
Bruce Smith Westland District Council Y
Mike Tana Porirua Y
Graham Smith Mackenzie District council Y
Malcolm Campbell Kawerau District Y
Tim Cadogan Central Otago Y
Jenny Shatlock South Waikato District Council Y
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REGIONAL COUNCILLORS WHO HAVE SIGNED THE OPEN LETTER
Stephen Woodhead Otago Regional Council Y
Rex Grahamn Hawke's Bay Regional Council Y
Chris Laidlaw Greater Wellington Regional Council Y
Douglas Leeder Bay of Plenty Regional Council Y