NZ's plastic pollution and landfill emissions are unacceptable, advocates say

Sunday, 30 June 2019

The Southern Landfill in its current stage is expected to reach full capacity within five years, and is being expanded.

Wellington's landfill will be full in less than five years if the 7600 tonnes of plastic sent there each year isn't reduced.

Litter and plastic can be found on any beach, and those fighting the problem say consumers and businesses need to be doing more.

Sustainable Coastlines co-founder Sam Judd said per capita, New Zealand was the tenth most wasteful for urban waste – now one of the worst nations in the developed world.

Wellington City Council waste operations manager Emily Taylor-Hall said, in 2009, the landfill received about 138 tonnes of plastic each week. In 2018, it had increased by 8 per cent - to 149 tonnes per week.

'Fish are eating plastic and we know that plastic has carcinogenic chemicals in it … it's undoubtful that is getting into our food chain.

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Sustainable Coastlines co-founder Sam Judd said per capita, New Zealand is the tenth most wasteful for urban waste according to the World Bank.

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'It's putting the entire seafood industry at risk, and it's putting families at risk who can't catch a fish and eat it with their family.'

Sustainable Coastlines say enough is enough when it comes to plastic waste.

Research from Auckland University's Institute of Marine Science had shown of the eight fish species common in New Zealand, only one did not eat plastic.

While thousands of Kiwis attempted to give up plastic each year, Massey University environmental anthropologist and political ecologist Dr Trisia Farrelly said it was also up to big businesses to make real change.

Environmental anthropologist, political ecologist and single-use plastic-free campaigner, Dr Trisia Farrelly said the big businesses have the most power to make change.

'There's a lot of propaganda around that it's all the consumers' fault.'

Consumers had been constantly told to cut down, but for most people, plastic alternatives were expensive and out of reach.

Of the 7600 tonnes sent to the landfill each year, 928 tonnes could have been recycled.

Emissions from Southern Landfill account for 80 per cent of the Wellington City Council's direct emissions, which Sustainable Business Network campaign lead Andy Kenworthy said was 'not acceptable'.

'It's up to all of us to reduce landfill and the associated emissions by making the necessary changes in the way we live and work.'

The whole system needed to change, from a linear one extracting oil for plastic products and turning them into waste, into a circular system, he said.

'Importantly, that might not mean becoming completely 'plastic free', because plastic remains an incredibly useful material.

'But it has to mean using the minimum necessary amounts of plastic in ways that eliminate waste and pollution.'

The plastic environment became even more tumultuous when China stopped accepting the world's plastic for recycling last year and, after a short stint sending it all to Malaysia, many councils have stopped recycling plastic types two to seven because the overseas market for them has dried up.

New Zealand's 'soft plastic recycling' scheme in supermarkets also became problematic last year with their stockpile having amassed to 400 tonnes.

At the Southern Landfill, plastic milk bottles, shopping bags, yoghurt containers and takeaway packaging spotted about the place give the landfill its colour.

Every day, workers traverse the tip face to collect rubbish that has blown free – they once found an old plastic bag from a supermarket which closed down in the 1970s.

Council waste operations manager Emily Taylor-Hall said in 2009 the landfill received about 138 tonnes of plastic each week. In 2018 that had increased to 149 tonnes – an increase of eight per cent.

In 2005, weekly plastic to landfill was just 66 tonnes.

'We're committed to reducing waste to class one landfills by a third, and so any reduction to landfill contributes to this target.'

About $23.5 million has been budgeted over the next 10 years for the landfill's extension.

The 80 per cent of the council's direct emissions coming from the landfill was not unusually high, she said.