Skip to main content.

Special wastes

Product stewardship is a tool especially well suited to handling “special wastes”. Special wastes cause special difficulties when trying to dispose of them. Some examples of special wastes are:

These products can damage the environment, cause harm to people or animals, are bulky in landfills, or are a waste of useful resources. These problems can be reduced if those involved in the product’s production, sale and use take a responsibility for the product’s disposal.

Agricultural chemicals

New Zealand has a lot of unused agricultural chemicals to dispose of – a result of the country’s strong farming economy. The chemicals might no longer be usable because they have expired, or their use has been banned. Some of these chemicals are hazardous to the environment and human health, and they need to be properly collected and disposed of.

The Ministry for the Environment and local councils are working to collect existing stocks of agricultural chemicals (for more information, see the Ministry for the Environment publication Intractable Agricultural Chemicals in New Zealand) from around the country. When stockpiles of these chemicals are cleared up, agrichemical businesses will start schemes to collect any future waste agricultural chemicals.

More information on agricultural chemicals

Back to top

Agricultural plastics

New Zealand produces a lot of farm plastics. Farm plastics are mainly used as chemical containers and silage wrap. These plastics are dangerous to burn or bury on the farm. They are also sometimes hazardous to landfill, and could instead be recycled.

An industry-led scheme to collect farm chemical containers, AgRecovery. Additionally, industry and local councils are currently agreeing plans for the collection of farm silage wrap.

Back to top

Construction and demolition wastes

Approximately half of the waste New Zealand produces is construction and demolition waste - about three million tonnes of waste every year. Much of this waste is able to be reused, or at least put in “cleanfills”, rather than filling up landfills.

The New Zealand Waste Strategy made construction and demolition waste a priority waste. This strategy has set a target of 50% reduction of construction and demolition waste being disposed of to landfills by 2008.

More information on construction and demolition waste

Back to top

Waste electrical and electronic equipment

Waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE), or e-waste, can be defined as 'anything with a plug or battery'. E-waste includes products such as batteries, computers, cellphones, TVs and lighting appliances such as fluorescent tubes. Approximately 80,000 tonnes of E-waste is discarded to landfill in New Zealand every year.

E-waste can contain toxic substances such as lead, cadmium, mercury and brominated flame retardant plastics. These substances are dangerous if they are burnt, or if they leach into the soil or waterways. Throwing E-waste away also wastes valuable materials such as steel, gold, platinum and copper. Instead, the products can often be repaired and given another life or the materials recycled

More information on E-waste

Product stewardship schemes to reduce E-waste:

Back to top

End-of-life vehicles

Vehicles that have come to the end of their useful life cause a waste problem. The vehicles are often dumped, sometimes in tourist or recreational spots. Even if the vehicles are sent to the scrap yard, the yard has to be careful to make sure all the various toxic substances in them are disposed of properly. Vehicles can contain used oil, refrigerant, batteries, and circuit boards - all of which can be toxic to the environment. There are approximately 25,000 cars dumped illegally in New Zealand every year (at a cost of $6 million to councils). Another 100,000 vehicles are disposed of legally.

Back to top

End-of-life tyres

Tyres that have come to the end of their useful life are a waste problem, because they are difficult to dispose of. When placed in landfills whole, tyres are bulky. Whole tyres can also move about in landfills, which can make the landfill unstable. If tyres are stacked separately at landfills, they pose a fire risk (and a health risk if they do catch fire). Additionally, the cost of sending tyres to landfill means they are sometimes dumped on private and public property.

Approximately 3 – 4 millions tyres are disposed of every year in New Zealand. Tyre Track is a product stewardship scheme that addresses the problem of waste tyres. Tyre Track works to track end-of-life tyres in New Zealand, and to ensure they are all properly disposed of.

More information on end-of-life tyres

Product stewardship schemes to manage end-of-life tyres – Tyre Track

Back to top

Packaging

Packaging accounts for about one tenth of waste going to landfill. We can increase the amount of packaging we recycle. Packaging includes products that serve as a package or container, and can be made out of paper, plastic, glass, aluminium or steel.

The packaging waste problem is addressed by New Zealand’s largest product stewardship scheme, the Packaging Accord. The Accord has over 200 participants.

Product stewardship schemes to manage packaging - Packaging Accord

Back to top

Used oil

Used oil is the single biggest non-water liquid waste in New Zealand. Approximately 30 million litres of used oil is produced each year. Used oil is an environmental hazard. Used oil should not be sent to landfill, put down sewers, or burnt without proper controls. Used oil is particularly toxic because it contains toxic contaminants such as heavy metals and polyaromatic hydrocarbons.  

To address this problem, several members of industry operate a used oil collection scheme. Under the scheme, the used oil is burnt in such a way that the toxic contaminants become harmless.

More information on used oil.

Back to top


Last updated: 13 December 2007