The Centre has used their recent grant of $9,500 to provide bins for food waste, compostable packaging and recyclables at the market since the beginning of July.

The Centre’s Plastic Free Kaitāia Co-ordinator Waikarere Gregory says they began the project to coincide with Plastic Free July and collected two 60l bags of compostable material at one market alone, despite the poor weather. Previously only a general rubbish bin was available.

“It’s been a great success, reducing waste in the council landfill bins by up to 75% each week,” she says.

The compostable material collected from the market goes towards creating compost by KaitāiaCycle a collaboration with Good Life Projects (which works with youth and adults with intellectual disabilities to create bountiful gardens), CBEC Ecosolutions and Earthcare, Waikarere says.

The Centre identified the need for bins after running a trial at the market and found a strong zero-waste contingent, with most stalls using compostable or recyclable packaging. The trial also found many members of the public were keen to reduce waste to landfill, but a lack of bins meant compostable or recyclable material was going in general rubbish bins, she says.

“We’re also going to work with stallholders to help them move toward better packaging options that can be either recycled or composted, and ideally work towards a reusable system.”

The Centre took a zero-waste approach to the entire operation with the reusable bin liners sewn by local group Anō Anō Clothing Rescue, from old shower curtains, flags and material, Waikarere says.

She also uses an e-bike and trailer, on some days, to transport some of their gear to and from the market.

“We are currently looking for someone to employ to oversee the bins, but in the meantime are managing a roster system with our current contractors,” she says.

The Packaging Forum CEO Rob Langford says the Forum also supplied the Centre with a bin stand and signage from the Litter Less Recycling More project it was involved with to help make the bins more visible and prevent them toppling in high winds.

“We thought this was a great project because it not only keeps recyclable and compostable material out of landfill but helps with educating the public around putting waste in the right bins and not just choosing landfill as the default option,” he says.

The Packaging Forum CEO Rob Langford says the Forum, and its Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme (SPRS), had largely supported the proposal during its consultation period, and were pleased to see Government take the next step.

“There was a long consultation period, as there should be, and it’s great to see Government moving forward. It’s essential there are end-of-life solutions in place for packaging and in the case of the plastic types being phased out that is not the case.

“Oxo-degradable plastics are a prime example as they are neither recyclable or compostable,” Rob says. He added that it’s important to note bio plastics (often referred to as ‘compostable plastic’) will also be part of the single-use plastic item phase-out.

The Forum cautioned against the phase-out causing unintended consequences. As industry moves to alternative materials there must also be the development of recycling, reuse and other end-of-life solutions for these materials, as well as consideration around food safety, Rob says.

“We are therefore urging care when choosing alternatives,” he says.

Rob pointed out alternative materials, such as compostable and fibre (paper and cardboard) packaging also have challenges, especially when we consider New Zealand’s focus on a low-emissions and zero waste economy.

“Our Compostable Technical Advisory Group is currently developing a use-case for New Zealand and is busy consulting with industry and stakeholders,” Rob says.

Moving to alternative materials is a major undertaking for a lot of manufacturers, importers and retailers, he says.

The Forum’s submission during the consultation period called for a full cost benefit analysis, which follows Treasury guidelines, to assess impact on business, food safety, shelf life and cool-chain (particularly for export items).

“That’s where the $50 million Plastics Innovation Fund announced by Government is therefore very welcome and will be vital in helping industry transition and overcome challenges. We are watching with interest to see how those funds will be allocated and excited to see what innovative solutions are developed as a result.”

Phase-out timeline:

By late 2022:

• PVC meat trays
• PS (polystyrene) takeaway food and beverage packaging
• EPS (expanded polystyrene) food and beverage packaging (including meat trays)
• Degradable plastic products (e.g. oxo-degradable)
• Plastic drink stirrers
• Plastic stemmed cotton buds (including bio-plastics)

By mid-2023:

• Plastic produce bags (not including pre-packaged produce)
• Plastic plates, bowls and cutlery (disposable)
• Plastic straws
• Plastic produce labels

By mid-2025:

• All other PVC food and beverage packaging
• All other PS food and beverage packaging (e.g. yoghurt packs)

Compostable packaging has significant value in the packaging system in specific applications where it can bring nutrients to composters for composting, thus diverting organic waste from landfill. Globally, diverting wasted food from landfill is a priority. In New Zealand (NZ), our Climate Change Commission recently declared organic recycling a top priority for reducing carbon emissions in the waste industry, alongside capturing more methane from landfills.

“Compostable packaging” incorporates a wide range of material types used in a variety of applications.  However, some applications are not globally considered as best practice for the generally accepted “use case” for compostable packaging.

In this consultation document we aim to discuss:

• The system for compostable packaging in NZ
• Some existing international use cases for compostable packaging
• The NZ position previously published by WasteMinz Organic Materials Sector Group in 2016
• The range of existing compostable packaging materials and applications in the NZ marketplace, and,
• A proposed use-case for all stakeholders to work from as a step towards a working system for compostable packaging in NZ

Consultation closing date: 30 June

Download the consultation document

How to make a submission

Simple submissions with answers less than 50 words per question may be submitted through our online survey.

Fill in the short submission

For more detailed submissions, please email your submission, preferably in a word document.

Emailed submissions will need to include the following information:

• First and last name
• Email address
• Company or organisation you represent (if applicable)
• Part of the supply chain you represent:
  • Manufacturer from raw materials
  • Manufacturer from imported materials
  • Packaging distributor
  • Brand owner importing packaging for own goods
  • Brand owner using packaging from distributor/manufacturer
  • Brand owner of a compostable product
  • Waste management company/organisation
  • Local body
  • Industry organisation
  • Compost facility
  • Consumer
  • Other

Email your detailed submission

Next steps

Following the closing of the consultation, we will be analysing the results and publishing a summary document which will include recommendations.

The survey, conducted in early March by Horizon Research for The Packaging Forum, also found more people believe there is a problem with litter where they lived, compared with a year earlier.

The survey spoke to over 1,200 people about public place recycling and rubbish bins and found the number of people who have access to public bins continued upwards to 2.4 million adults (66% of respondents). This was an increase of 2% on 2020 and 25% from the first survey in 2014.

Bins to make recycling easier, better

The Packaging Forum CEO Rob Langford says they have been working over recent years to rollout new colour-coded bins which help making recycling and disposing of rubbish easier to get right.

“There are a lot of people who want to do the right thing and recycle, but don’t have the information to do so correctly which causes unintended contamination issues. With the right information they have the potential to have a hugely positive impact.”

While awareness of these colour-coded bins declined slightly to 50%, it was still well up from 37% in 2019.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact and the research shows a drop in awareness where the bins were removed during lockdown but have not been returned,” Rob says.

It was very encouraging to see awareness was highest among people aged 18 to 24, he says. “Those aged 75 and over had just as much awareness, so it’s the group in the middle where more focus is needed.”

The colour-coded bins have continued to be very effective, Rob says, with 81% of people reporting they made knowing what to recycle and what to put in the rubbish easier. “This has been the consistent response over the past three years, so the design is working.”

More litter, less effort

He says it was interesting to see that while litter was perceived as more of a problem, with 34% people agreeing it was (up 5%), individuals were less likely to make an extra effort to use public bins. The report showed 28% of people would walk more than 40 metres to find a bin, down from 37% in 2020.

However, while attitudes towards telling someone else to pick up litter they had dropped changed little from 2020, people were slightly more likely to pick up litter themselves – up 3% to 39%.