Recycling breakthrough as Environment Ministry works on drink container refund scheme

Thursday, 13 June 2019

Laura Clarke, Governor of Pitcairn Island talks about an upcoming expedition to clean up and highlight plastic pollution on Henderson Island.

A recycling scheme that would see consumers refunded a deposit when they returned drinks containers for recycling is being looked at by the Government, the Environment Ministry says.

The Environment Ministry said in a statement that a deposit-refund system would 'incentivise' the recovery of quality recyclables from the waste and litter streams.

Government work was underway to look at the option, 'but we need to make sure we get the design of such a system right', it said.

Parliament's Environment select committee has also promised to look into a proposal that would see Kiwis paid 10 cents or 20c to return each of the 2.3 billion plastic, glass and other drinks containers sold each year for recycling, after receiving a petition with 15,000 signatures.

Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage says a discussion document is a 'few months' away.

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Beverage makers aren't the first to call for recycling schemes but are reading the writing on the wall and will compete to run them, campaigners say.

Committee chairman Deborah Russell said the select committee aimed to produce a 'really good report' on the proposal.

One of the scheme's backers, Zero Waste Network chairman Marty Hoffart, said it would more than double recycling rates for plastic bottles and other drinks containers to 85 per cent and would add just 0.5c to the cost of each drink, assuming the deposit was reclaimed.

Hoffart said there was 'overwhelming support' for a national bottle deposit scheme along the lines that had operated in Canada for 50 years, with 90 per cent of councils and 83 per cent of the public supportive.

Greenpeace campaigner Steve Abel said Countdown sustainability manager Kiri Hannifin had also voiced 'in principle' support and expressed interest in Countdown supermarkets being one of the collection points.

Hannifin said Countdown supported 'the Government and local councils in their efforts to help New Zealand do better with our waste and recycling, including looking at the range of different options available'.

Plastic bottles are one of the 'top offenders' in ocean waste.

'These are decisions for government and councils to make and we'll meet any legislative changes as part of our own programme of work to reduce our environmental footprint as well,' she said.

Abel said an obstacle had been the Environment Ministry.

Canada's bottle deposit scheme has been successful because it has 'no exceptions' including tetra paks, a campaigner says.

'The ambition of the Ministry of the Environment has just not been up to the task,' he told MPs.

The ministry had a history of having a lot of conversations with industry and being far too weighted to the interests of the beverage and packaging industries, he said.

But Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage said 'the previous government had a lack of ambition in the waste space so the ministry was probably implementing the previous government's lack of ambition'.

A consultation document would be released in the 'next few months' which would concern packaging, she said.

The Government understood the public wanted solutions to reduce the waste the country created, she said.

There was at this point no commitment from the Government to introduce such a scheme, she clarified.

'I know there are sections of the community that want container deposit schemes, but we need to ensure that before we implement any of those schemes, the way they are designed, the criteria, and how they operate are soundly based,' she said.

Those were the sorts of issues the discussion document would consider, she said.

'It took New South Wales three years to develop a scheme. You want them to operate well.'

Holly Dove of Kiwi Bottle Drive, which organised the parliamentary petition, said that once governments required schemes to be put in place beverage manufacturers then tended to get in behind them and compete to operate them.

The lobby group favoured beverage makers paying 20c per container into a management fund when they manufactured drinks containers.

That would pay for 20c deposits to be returned to consumers.

Under its proposal, the $70m annual cost of operating the scheme would largely be paid for by the 'lost deposits' from the 10 to 15 per cent of containers that were not returned, and from the proceeds of recycling which Kiwi Bottle Drive estimated at $18 million a year.

That would still leave a $10m annual cost that would push up the average cost of drinks by half-a-cent, Hoffart believed.

Abel said such a deposit scheme would be needed to ever see recycling rates above 40 per cent.

While roadside recycling was effective in collecting glass bottles of drinks consumed at home, it was not effective when drinks were consumed away from the home, he said.

Once deposit schemes were in place, they tended to result in an improvement in the quality of drinks containers and encouraged the packaging and beverage industries to switch to refillable containers, meaning less plastic was produced, he said.

'We know plastic bottles are one of the 'number one' offenders in terms of what shows up on beaches based on studies done by Sustainable Coastlines.

'Our primary concern is the chronic impact of plastic pollution on the marine environment.'

Given New Zealand already had a Waste Minimisation Act which provided a legislative framework for product stewardship schemes, a bottle deposit scheme could be put in place 'now', he said.

'We should just get on with doing it.'

Hoffart said Canada's scheme was effective because it had 'no exceptions'.

'All beverage sizes are in from 300ml to 3 litres and that includes tetra paks.'

'South Australia has had it for four decades and they have had the lowest litter rate in Australia since. The UK has announced it. When are we going to make the announcement?'

A report commissioned by Auckland Council found the benefits outweighed the costs and it would inject $645m into the economy over 10 years and double recycling rates, he said.

'It doesn't involve public money. It would create 2000 jobs and there is not a lot of opposition to it.'

Many beverage companies had removed information indicating they opposed such schemes from their websites, he said.

'They are never going to come and say they want it, but I think most of them are under the impression it is on its way.'

Greenpeace oceans campaigner Jessica Desmond said beverage manufacturers tended to want to push the cost of schemes on to retailers, but to get a 85-90 per cent return rate, 'the beverage industry itself need to pay for the deposit'.