Review of Targets in the New Zealand Waste Strategy

Article II. 1 Executive Summary

Article III. 2 Background

Article IV. 3 Local Authority Adoption of the Strategy and its Targets

Article V. 4 Comment on Each Target

Article VI. 5 Key Issues Arising from the Review

Article VII. 6 Proposed Monitoring and Evaluation System

Article VIII. Annex I: National Targets for Priority Wastes

Article IX. Annex II: Monitoring and Evaluation System - Issues for Further Consideration

Article X. References

Article IV. 3 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 community council 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. 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. 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 annual plans or annual reports.