2 Local Authority Adoption of the Strategy and its Targets

To date about 75 percent of local authorities have considered and responded positively to the New Zealand Waste Strategy. Changes to council policies as a consequence of the strategy heavily depend on policies already in place and the status of councils' waste management plans. For territorial authorities, waste management plans prepared under Part XXXI of the Local Government Act are the principal instrument for establishing and reviewing waste management policies.

Since the completion of the New Zealand Waste Strategy several councils have prepared or reviewed waste management plans and taken steps to include policies and targets that reflect the strategy. The experience of these councils has been drawn on in the course of this review. The Ministry expects other councils to progressively review their waste management plans to take explicit account of the New Zealand Waste Strategy. This includes setting targets as proposed in the strategy.

The process of formally reflecting the New Zealand Waste Strategy in waste management planning documents may take another few years. In the interim some changes to the waste management policies of councils can be expected (and will be necessary to meet some national targets that fall soon), and will be reflected in other planning instruments such as annual plans and the long-term council community plans.

One welcome initiative, encouraged through the New Zealand Waste Strategy, has been the role played by regional councils in developing regional approaches to waste management planning. Waikato, Taranaki and Bay of Plenty regional councils have facilitated regional approaches to waste management planning directly involving the territorial authorities within their regions. The Ministry for the Environment is also assisting the West Coast Regional Council to develop a regional approach to waste management planning. These initiatives will, for instance, enable co-ordinated projects on waste data collection and public information. The ability to measure progress towards targets at a regional level will make it easier to measure progress nationally. In other parts of the country, such as Canterbury and Southland, groups of territorial authorities have also been collaborating in the development of joint policies.

While some general statements can be made about the adoption of the targets, based on discussions with local authorities and consideration of their waste management and annual planning documents, a formal survey of local authorities is required to provide a more definitive picture of the adoption of these targets. The idea of a biennial survey, forming part of a broader system for monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the strategy, is discussed in section 5. Given the limited analysis undertaken so far, it is possible that local authorities have adopted targets in line with the strategy but have not rewritten their waste management plans to reflect this and have not referred specifically to this aspect of waste management in their plans and reports.

Local authorities are also still coming to grips with the Local Government Act 2002. Although the waste management planning requirements in Part XXXI of the Local Government Act 1976 remain unrepealed, the new Act also has implications for waste management. Section 286 of the 2002 Local Government Act requires every territorial authority that does not have a waste management plan under part XXXI to adopt one by 30 June 2005. The 2002 Act also provides for the creation of long-term council community plans, and for assessments of water (including waste water) and sanitary services. Summaries of waste management plans and the assessments of water and sanitary services are to be incorporated into the long-term council community plans. The first full and comprehensive long-term council community plans are required to commence from 1 July 2006. The Ministry expects that, before this date, many councils whose waste management plans precede the development of the New Zealand Waste Strategy will take the opportunity to review these plans. This will enable contemporary waste management plans to be reflected in the new long-term council community plans.

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