Appendix A: Consultation questions and feedback form

We encourage you to send feedback using the electronic submission form available on the Ministry’s website at: http://www.mfe.govt.nz/survey/x09wastediscdoc.htm

Please use the following questions to guide your feedback. You do not have to answer every question.

Your contact details

Please include the following information with your submission:

Your name
The name of the organisation you represent
Your address
Your email address
Your telephone number

Questions for Part 1: Revising the targets for the New Zealand Waste Strategy

Use the following questions to guide your feedback on the proposed targets. You do not have to answer every question.

What is your view on each of the 14 proposed targets listed below?
Is the timeframe for achieving each proposed target realistic?
Are there any additional high-level targets you would like to propose? If so, what is the waste issue you think the proposed target should address, what information is available to monitor progress towards the target, and what timeframe do you think should apply?

List of the proposed targets

Target 1: By 2015, reduce the quantity of waste (tonnes) disposed to landfill per person per year by 20 per cent relative to an established 2010 baseline.

Target 2: By 2010, have a system in place for the ongoing monitoring of the composition of waste to landfill.

Target 3: By 2012, have a system in place for the ongoing monitoring of the composition of organic waste, the amount disposed of at landfills and diverted from the waste stream.

Target 4: By 2012, have a system in place for the ongoing monitoring of the generation and composition of construction and demolition waste, the amount diverted from the waste stream and the amount disposed of.

Target 5: By 2012, the Ministry for the Environment will have established a national tracking system for all hazardous waste.

Target 6: By 2011, the Ministry for the Environment will have investigated the need for, and propose if warranted, regulatory standards for storage, transport, recycling, recovery, treatment and disposal of hazardous wastes.

Target 7: By 2012, specific industries will develop at least three accredited product stewardship schemes that increase the recovery or recycling of the hazardous components of waste.

Target 8: By 2014, specific industries will develop at least two other accredited product stewardship schemes that result in a reduction in hazardous substance production at source.

Target 9: By 2015, regional councils will have established satisfactory systems to record information on contaminated sites and will have assessed which sites pose a high environmental risk.

Target 10: By 2020, regional councils will have investigated all contaminated sites identified by 2015 as high risk, and will be implementing an action plan for their management and/or remediation.

Target 11: By 2015, all waste disposal facilities (including wastewater treatment plants, landfills, cleanfills and onsite wastewater systems) will be meeting existing regulatory standards and will be consented if this is a requirement.

Target 12: By 2010, the Ministry for the Environment will assess the need for a national environmental standard addressing environmental management of solid waste disposal facilities.

Target 13: By 2012, the Ministry for the Environment will have implemented a waste monitoring and reporting programme to generate consistent data on national waste streams including waste to cleanfills and other disposal sites (eg, industrial landfills).

Target 14: By 2012, the Ministry for the Environment will work with local authorities to develop a national reporting template that councils will use to report to the Ministry on progress against their waste management and minimisation plans and other waste-related activities.

Questions for Part 2: Identifying products that are priorities for product stewardship

Use the following questions to guide your feedback on indentifying products that are priorities for product stewardship. You do not have to answer every question. Please list your feedback on each product separately. You may identify up to five products.

Which products do you think should be the highest priority for a mandatory product stewardship scheme? These may already be one of the products we have identified, or they may be other products you think we should consider.
For each product you identify:
1. What do you think is the problem?
2. What is the volume of waste from the product?
3. What is the nature of the harm associated with the product?
4. Where in the life cycle of the product is harm occurring (eg, manufacture, use, disposal)?
5. What should we be trying to achieve in managing this waste?
6. Why are existing waste management tools not adequate to deal with these problems?
7. Are there alternatives to product stewardship? Would they work?
8. What targets (for reduction, reuse, recycling, recovery, treatment or disposal) need to be set to guide management efforts?
9. Are regulations required to effectively manage the product? Why or why not?
Stakeholders:
1. Who would be affected by a new product stewardship regime for this product, and to what extent?
2. Who would need to be involved in designing and running any product stewardship scheme?
Costs and benefits:
1. What would be the types of costs and benefits of developing and operating the desired product stewardship activity? Do you have any information on the magnitude of any costs and benefits?
2. Who should bear the costs of establishing a scheme?
3. What would be the barriers to implementing new measures for this waste?
Is there anything else we need to consider?

Note that the responses will help assess which products may be candidates for product stewardship. Before any declaration of priority products under the Act or other regulation occurs there will be a further consultation round and a regulatory impact statement will be prepared.

Questions for Part 3: Identifying funding criteria for the Waste Minimisation Fund

Use the following questions to guide your feedback on criteria for the Waste Minimisation Fund. You do not have to answer every question.

Are the criteria identified by the Ministry for the Environment appropriate for determining projects that may be funded by the Waste Minimisation Fund?
If you do not agree with the criteria, what changes would you suggest?
Do you think additional items should be included in the criteria? These could include:
1. Scale
2. Innovation
3. Research and development
4. Legacy waste
5. Targeting to particular wastes or wastes streams
6. Repayment conditions.
Do you have any other comments to make on the operation of the Waste Minimisation Fund?

Questions for Part 4: Monitoring waste in New Zealand

Use the following questions to guide your feedback on our proposals for monitoring the composition of waste disposed of to landfills in New Zealand. You do not have to answer every question.

Do you consider that waste facility operators should be required to supply data on the composition of waste disposed of at landfills?
If so, are the waste classifications proposed the right ones?
What are the practical implications of gathering this compositional data?
Do you think it will impose additional costs on landfill operators, what will those costs be, and do you think they are reasonable?
Can you suggest other options for obtaining compositional data that would be more efficient and effective?

Questions for Part 5: Improving the operation of the waste levy

Use the following questions to guide your feedback on improving the operation of the waste levy. You do not have to answer every question.

What is the maximum amount of cover material required for effective environmental management purposes (up to 10 per cent of the weight of waste deposited in the landfill)?
Should material used for environmental management purposes be exempt from the waste levy? If not, why not?

If so:
- What should be the maximum allowable percentage of cover material exempt from the levy?
- What are the benefits of a zero rate for cover material?
- Would this impose any additional operational costs?
Are there any other options for addressing the potential perverse effects of applying a
$10 per tonne levy rate?

Please post, deliver or email your completed form to:

Waste Discussion Document Submissions
Ministry for the Environment
PO Box 10362
Wellington 6143

Email: waste@mfe.govt.nz

Submissions close at 5.00 pm on Friday 15 May 2009.