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Development of Product Stewardship in New Zealand

The government and local councils assist businesses in the formation of product stewardship schemes in New Zealand by offering expertise, contacts, resources and funding where possible.

This voluntary approach means that businesses are able to adapt schemes to achieve their goals in the most efficient and effective way. Often the markets these businesses operate in are dynamic and volatile, and a scheme that works well one year may be ineffective the next. Setting up a product stewardship scheme is a learning experience for all involved, and what was thought to be the best solution when first designing a scheme may work out to be impractical or just plain wrong in the long run. With voluntary schemes, schemes can be quickly adapted to changing circumstances or new information. Additionally, instead of being side tracked by complying with government regulation, the efforts of all the parties involved goes into achieving the goals of the schemes.

The government is committed to industry-led, voluntary product stewardship schemes as one solution to the problem of waste. However, the government wants to give more strength to voluntary schemes, to allow them to work even more successfully. Industry, the public, councils and environmental organisations have called for product stewardship schemes to have more teeth, be used in more areas, and be fair to all those involved.

To address this desire, the Ministry for the Environment released a discussion document Product Stewardship and Water Efficiency Labelling in July 2005.

A number of options for product stewardship in New Zealand were explained:

  • continuing with the current purely voluntary product stewardship approach;
  • allowing for regulation to ensure non-participants engage in product stewardship;
  • adopting a completely mandatory approach for product stewardship; or
  • a mixed approach of voluntary schemes, with a regulatory “backstop” when needed.

The Ministry for the Environment’s recommendation was the backstop regulation option. The Ministry considers this option will bring the greatest environmental benefits, while still allowing schemes to retain the advantages associated with voluntary schemes – flexibility, adaptability, focus, efficiency and effectiveness.

130 submissions on the discussion document were received. You can view an analysis of these submissions.

The Ministry for the Environment is building a policy proposal to present to government, based on the submissions received on the discussion document, and current discussion with stakeholders throughout New Zealand. It is expected that the policy proposal will be ready by mid-2006.

Last updated: 9 February 2007