New Zealand recycles less than 5 per cent of all soft plastics, with most ending up in landfills and breaking down into smaller pieces called microplastics, which end up in our natural environment, including the ocean.
New Zealand recycles less than 5 per cent of all soft plastics, with most ending up in landfills and breaking down into smaller pieces called microplastics, which end up in our natural environment, including the ocean.
Opinion by James Palmer
OPINION
This year’s UN-sponsored World Environment Day theme is ending plastic pollution.
Aotearoa New Zealand is part of the international community that endorsed a historic decision to negotiate an international legally binding agreement by the close of 2024 to end plastic pollution.
Aotearoa New Zealand has an unhealthy relationship withplastic. It has become an almost inevitable part of our lives.
On average, each New Zealander sends nearly 60kg of plastic to landfill every year.
Currently New Zealand recycles less than 5 per cent of all soft plastics, with most ending up in landfills.
Illustration / Rod Emmerson
All of this is bad news for our environment. Unlike organic materials, plastic never fully disintegrates. Instead, it breaks down into smaller pieces called microplastics which end up in our natural environment, including the ocean.
We’ve all seen images of marine life being upended by plastic floating in our oceans, with marine animals mistaking plastic debris for food, often leading to their death. Microplastics are also accumulating in every corner of the globe with effects we don’t fully understand.
Plastics are the second most common type of litter found in New Zealand’s environment. Sadly, we are one of the most wasteful nations in the world. Our current relationship with plastic is not sustainable.
But it is changing for the better. The good news? We can, and we are, making a difference.
In 2019, the Government banned plastic shopping bags. By using reusable shopping bags we’ve already removed more than one billion plastic bags from our landfills or oceans.
A hardware store owner backs the banning of single-use plastic bags as the way forward. Photo / Stuart Munro
This positive momentum is continuing with our three-phase approach to removing other single-use and hard-to-recycle plastics in Aotearoa.
In October last year the first phase took effect, with plastic coffee stirrers, plastic-stemmed cotton buds and some PVC and polystyrene food packaging being phased out.
From July 1 this year the Government takes its next step, banning the sale and production of single-use plastic tableware and plastic produce bags. From July 1 there will also be restrictions on the sale of single-use plastic straws.
The third stage in 2025 will include food and beverage packaging made primarily from PVC and polystyrene, like some of the yoghurt pots in circulation.
These big changes will have a positive collective impact on our environment.
We will be the first country in the world to ban single-use plastic produce bags. This alone will remove 150 million bags from circulation every year - that’s 17,000 plastic bags every single hour.
Ministry for the Environment chief executive James Palmer writes that New Zealand is one of the world's most wasteful nations - but Kiwis have begun to change that. Photo / Michael Schultz
These numbers are hard to fathom but they do tell a story of what we can achieve when we work together as a country.
It doesn’t stop at removing these plastics from our environment, we are also making improvement to how we recycle.
Recently announced changes to kerbside collections from next year will divert an extra 53,000 tonnes of recycling that is normally left at landfill sites.
Like the commitment we saw in 2019 when plastic shopping bags were banned, July 1 is the Government’s next big move, and we all have a part to play.
The small changes we make each day will change our relationship with plastic.
Removing problematic plastics and improving our recycling infrastructure is part of our journey to transform our waste system and create a cleaner Aotearoa New Zealand for generations to come.
There is no quick fix to our plastics problem. But by continuing to embrace change we reduce our waste, protect our biodiversity, and preserve the wildlife and natural beauty of Aotearoa New Zealand.
- James Palmer is chief executive at the Ministry for the Environment.
