New Plymouth public meeting
Tuesday 7 November
Waste policy
Education and information
- A “how to” guide on meeting legislative requirements is needed. Industry should not just be told it needs to meet a legislative requirement, it should be told how to meet it.
- Tools should be developed such as a website directory with links to websites that tell us how to meet environmental requirements and manage waste, or perhaps a fridge magnet with a few relevant links on it.
- Strategic guidance is needed on what is coming on the horizon on the national level in 5-10 years time. This is done well at a regional level through the regional policy statement.
- MfE needs to link industry with industry associations so that industry associations can filter information through.
- There is interest in landfill design and the visual impacts of landfills. More guidance is needed on this.
- MfE’s website needs to be really easy to use. It is good, but it can still be difficult to find case studies.
- Just providing information on a website is not adequate. DVDs and hardcopy publications are also needed.
- Pilot studies should be run on industry to see if our comments are reaching industry.
- Regional councils are a credible source of information in Taranaki.
- MfE is seen as a credible source of information on the latest innovations.
Recycling, reuse and community
- Does the waste management system work the way it is supposed to? How do people know what happens to their waste and recycling?
- The waste and recycling all goes in to the same truck.
- Community and business members want to know that the effort being put in to sorting waste is for something.
- People need to be partners in the solution.
General comments
- Needs to be very good linkages between MfE and local councils.
- The New Zealand hazardous waste list is difficult to use.
National environmental standards
Contaminated land
- A ‘tiered approach’ to setting a contaminated land standard would be most appropriate and pragmatic. This should be effects-based and site-specific (e.g. technology developed for the remediation of Mapua is not necessarily transferable to other sites around New Zealand).
- Good support for contaminated land NES-particularly for those doing assessments-at the moment people just do the bare minimum required
- It was noted that currently there is a sense of fear around potentially contaminated sites (e.g. market gardens in Auckland) and that this could be alleviated if authorities were required to do even desk to surveys to whittle number down to just those sites that are actually risky.
- Owners should be forced to remediate contaminated sites.
- What is the cross-over between the contaminated land and drinking water sources National Environmental Standards likely to be?
Water
- The cost of implementing a National Environmental Standard on drinking water sources is likely to be high in some regions. Is MfE going to do more than the rudimentary cost/benefit analysis that has already been done?
Energy efficiency
- The potential for an NES in the area of energy efficiency in the home should be explored. There are rigid guidelines in place in New South Wales. Is anything similar being considered here? Sustainability concepts need to be explored more.
General comments
- Is MfE considering an NES on gas transmission along the lines of the electricity transmission NES?
- There is support for national Cyanobacteria guidelines.
Water
Water allocation and usage
- There is pressure for water in some parts of the region for stock watering.
- Where private water schemes are in place, there is demand to join schemes and keeping up supply during peak times.
Water quality
- Taranaki bore water can be high in iron.
- Meeting water quality standards can be difficult. Fonterra sets high standards for water that comes into contact with milking equipment.
- 20 years ago it was only enthusiasts that were into that sort of things such as the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord. Now the majority of people think it is a good idea though some are still put off by the costs involved.
- Intensification is happening but the regional council’s figures show that water quality is improving.
- The major driver putting pressure on the environment is consumers wanting cheaper food. Supermarkets ‘hold the whip’ at the cost of the environment. The cost of compliance can be very high.
Flood risk management and catchment management
- There is a question mark over whether flooding is a national or a regional issue.
- It is time for councils to review and reassess flood plain risk designations.
Environmental reporting
General comments
- Pull all regional data together to compile national reports.
- Produce comprehensive documentation based on science, as well as easily digestible reports.
- What comes out gets into the media.
- Accentuate the positive and publicise successes.
- Use standard media including community newspapers like the “Midweek”, not just the internet.
- Do not exaggerate.
- Highlight only the areas that have done well. Do not focus on the areas that have performed poorly.
- Information should only be provided if it is factual and robust. Be very careful when data is not completely robust.
- Keep data updated and take away the old redundant information.
Climate change
Transport
- Government subsidies on transport would be useful. The use of public transport hubs should be encouraged. A tax on car usage could work.
- We need some form of carbon tax, as well as emission standards and a transport strategy, (including movement of goods). Disincentives should be put in place for vehicles which are not full.
- Our transport systems rely hugely on trucks. Rail usage in New Zealand is low. We could utilise the existing rail infrastructure more effectively. It would be great to see the whole network electrified.
- Hybrids are good but are resource intensive to build and still use a large quantity of petrol.
- We need to reduce the number of people using cars. The government should not be funding more roads – this is not a solution.
- Provide incentives to encourage the use of public transport and tax those who drive cars.
- Public transport is important in rural areas as well as urban areas.
- Biofuels and hybrid vehicles are keeping us at our current level of consumption. We need to reduce consumption.
Adaptation and mitigation
- There is a need for rules and standards when addressing climate change.
- Action needs to be taken now. Substantial climate change impacts are only 5-10 years away.
- The export of coal and its movement around the world is a concern for New Zealand.
- We need levers in place to force action – there has been too much decoupling, e.g. dairy industry.
- We need to ask the question “what is important?” How essential is it that we perpetuate our current carbon intensive lifestyle? We need to think about compromises and get serious about moving towards a low carbon lifestyle.
- Our current socioeconomic systems are based on growth and mass capitalism – people are reluctant to deviate from this.
- There is a need to change our entire socioeconomic and political system.
- We face the very real possibility of running out of fossil fuels entirely in the near future.
- We could stop exporting methanol and keep it here instead. Peak oil is not far away.
- Let’s take stock of our resources and keep raw materials here.
- It is often a matter of changing the efficiency of resource use, not necessarily a lifestyle change.
- We need regulation now before it is too late.
- Maybe silt is a bigger issue than ice melting in sea level rise.
- Water is a key issue and will affect the world in a big way.
- We take our lifestyles for granted e.g. transport, SUV’s, lifestyle blocks.
- A national strategy, regulation and taxes are needed to act as a ‘big stick’ to encourage people to change.
- We need to expand and improve our rail freight and rail network. Rail should be electrified. We need to utilise our existing rail network.
- Levers need to be put in place to enable action on climate change.
- Renewable energy should be prioritised over recreational activities such as canoeing, fishing etc.
- We need a complete social and economic change.
- Peak oil needs to be taken into account in future energy use predictions. We should be considering the impact of peak oil on New Zealand.
- We should stop exporting our coal, gas and oil and keep resources in New Zealand.
- Carbon sequestration and hydrogen production are oxygen depleting processes. We need to reduce our consumption. Central Government needs to take the lead.
- New Zealand is really small, how are we going to get the bigger economies to take action.
- The public needs to get onside and support government action.
- The time for action is now. We need to regulate. New Zealand can and should take the lead both nationally and internationally.
General interest
Waste
- The water management system has an affect on fresh water fish, particularly through culverts and storm water drains. More research is needed in this area. Air, water and storm water management practices have an affect freshwater ecology.
- Why investigate mining and do sampling off the coast if it ends up not happening anyway?
- Why don’t we have a charge on plastic and glass? This would give people an incentive to recycle rather than just throw it out.
- The responsibility for waste rests on the individual at the moment rather than on the business/industry that produces it. This focus needs to change.
- What is happening in managing “difficult to recycle” products such as car batteries? How are the risks being managed?
Climate change
- New Zealand has little ability to influence climate change. We can only really deal with the effects of the change. More focus is needed on the effects rather than dealing with the causes.
Education and information
- What is government’s commitment to sustainability in schools? Teachers need time out to learn and take courses about sustainability and take it back to schools. Sustainability should be spread more widely through schools in the general curriculum, not just through voluntary programmes such as Enviroschools.
- Sustainability should be taught in schools as part of the national curriculum.
General comments
- Guidance is wanted from local government about the liquid natural gas plant to inform debate and discussion at a local level. There are safety concerns about the plant.
- Local information, for example on sand mining and the LNG plant, should be provided in one place such as via a website.
- Local government are not sticking to the principles in their plans. The public try to get around the rules rather than accepting them.
- Central government should push local government to set a long term strategic focus.
- There are concerns about the links between what happens on land and what happens in our rivers. A control on discharges to rivers and coasts is needed to limit effects on the environment. The effect of what we are doing and what the change is should be measured.
- A national level measure for sediment runoff and fertiliser use is wanted.
- Farmers profit from changing land from bush to grass as it is cheaper than buying more land elsewhere. This leads to bad land use decisions. District plan guidance is needed to set land use guidelines.
- There is a need for a whole of environment approach to the way we do things, including land use and environmental management.
- We need integrated management of our regions, land and water to recognise the linkages.
- Firmer guidance is needed from central government about where New Zealand is going. Central government needs to help local government stick to their strategic directions.
- Incentives should be provided to recycle waste.
Last updated: 27 February 2008
