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New legislation a big push for waste minimisation
Resene Paintwise is a product stewardship scheme that involves the take back of
end-of-life paint and packaging.
Photo // Simon Edwards, Hutt News
September saw a huge environmental milestone with the passing of the Waste Minimisation Act 2008. This means we now have new legislation, solely dedicated to waste minimisation – a first for New Zealand. The next step will be putting the different elements of the legislation, such as a waste levy and product stewardship, in place.
Work to reduce waste in New Zealand has, for some time now, been driven by the New Zealand Waste Strategy 2002. This strategy sets out how we can minimise and manage waste in New Zealand.
Jeffrey Seadon, Manager Waste Minimisation Policy at the Ministry for the Environment, says that until now, initiatives to address waste have largely been voluntary.
“Although the work to date has been reasonably successful, dealing with waste needs a smarter, more concerted effort if we want to prepare ourselves for a growing population which will consume more and more.”
The new Waste Minimisation Act does just that. It encourages a reduction in the amount of waste we generate and dispose of in New Zealand and aims to lessen the environmental harm of waste.
A major shift in the Act is moving the focus from waste disposal to waste minimisation – reducing waste through activities such as resource recovery, recycling and avoiding waste in the first place.
“New Zealanders continue to throw away large quantities of potentially valuable materials. Many of these could be recovered and reused or recycled. The Act is putting instruments in place to make it easier for New Zealanders to do so,” Seadon says.
The two main tools in the Act to do this are a levy on all waste sent to landfill and the ability for the government to support businesses in different sectors to set up product stewardship schemes to minimise the environmental impact of products when they come to the end of their lives.
Levy on waste to landfill
The Agrichemicals Collection
Programme is responsible for
collecting and safely disposing
banned and unwanted
agrichemicals that have
accumulated on farms and rural
properties.
Seadon says the main purpose of the levy, which won't come into force until 1 July 2009, is to generate extra funding to set up new initiatives that will help local government, communities and businesses reduce waste.
So what will the impact of such a levy be on New Zealanders?
“The levy is based on the idea that the polluter pays, so people who dispose of waste to landfill can expect to pay for this. This would probably happen through a small rise in the price of rubbish bags. With the levy initially set at $10 per tonne, this would mean that individual households will pay around 20c extra per rubbish bag,” Seadon says.
Half of the monies raised through the levy collection will be distributed to councils to be used for waste minimisation projects. The other half will go into a contestable fund which will be open to businesses and communities to apply for funding, also for waste minimisation purposes.
“We will consult in early 2009 with the New Zealand public on what the criteria will be to grant funding through the contestable fund. We would like to know what people would like to see the money used for,” Seadon says.
Product stewardship
From 1 July 2009, landfill
operators will have to pay a
levy based on the weight of
waste material disposed at
landfill.
The other significant tool the Act introduces is product stewardship legislation to reduce waste from products that can be harmful to people or the environment, or a waste of valuable resources.
Product stewardship means that producers, brand owners, importers, retailers, consumers and other parties take responsibility for the environmental effects of their products at end-of-life – from ‘cradle-to-grave’.
Seadon says that in New Zealand, many businesses involved in products such as packaging, used oil, whiteware, refrigerants, cell phones and paint already have product stewardship schemes in place to reduce waste from these products on a voluntary basis.
Under the Act, businesses (or others) are asked to design and implement their own schemes. The Act does not say what a product stewardship scheme would have to look like. It is up to businesses and other stakeholders to decide, and implement, what would work for them.
“The preferred way under the Act is still for business to set up product stewardship schemes off their own bat first. Designing and producing lower waste, easily recoverable and recyclable products will become the most profitable way to do business in the years to come. And the sooner businesses embrace that reality, the more successful they will be,” Seadon says.
Although voluntary initiatives are still the preferred way forward, the Act also gives the government the tools to make it mandatory for businesses to set up product stewardship schemes.
“The Act sets out a process to determine whether there are products for which product stewardship schemes should be mandatory. This could be the case for products which generate waste that causes significant harm or when there are significant benefits from reducing, reusing or recycling the product. These products are called ‘priority products’,” Seadon says.
The Act does not list priority products but Seadon explains that the government will further consult on what products should be priority products. He says that it is not very likely that we will see any confirmed priority products in the next two years however, as the Ministry needs to allow time to complete the public consultation, research the options, and negotiate with industry to develop a robust product stewardship scheme for priority products.
“Although changes won’t happen overnight, New Zealanders will in the long term have more opportunities to recycle household appliances and other products that are currently difficult to dispose of in a responsible way.”
For more information, please email waste@mfe.govt.nz or contact Jeffrey Seadon 04 439 7630.
Dealing with waste needs a smarter, more concerted effort if we want to prepare ourselves for a growing population which will consume more and more.
In a nutshell, the Act:
- puts a levy on all waste disposed of in landfills to generate funding to help local government, communities and businesses reduce the amount of waste
- helps and, when necessary makes, producers, brand owners, importers, retailers, consumers and other parties take responsibility for the environmental effects from their products at end-of-life – from ‘cradle-to-grave’
- allows for regulations to be made making it mandatory for territorial authorities and others (for example, landfill operators) to report on waste to improve information on waste minimisation
- clarifies the roles and responsibilities of territorial authorities with respect to waste minimisation
- introduces a new Board to give independent advice to the Minister for the Environment on waste minimisation issues.
 In New Zealand, landfill is the |
How does the waste levy work?
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Examples of types of product stewardship:
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