Why those new cardboard bread tags won't be recycled if you don't do this

The company has replaced plastic bread bag tags with fully recyclable cardboard ones on Ploughmans Bakery and Bürgen bread. Photo / George Weston Foods

Not all new initiatives involving cardboard as an alternative form of packaging is rent free on the environment, says the chief executive of locally-used recycling company Smart Environmental.

Todd McLeay says bread bag twist ties made from cardboard are an example of "wishcycling" - tossing something in your recycling bin with hopes that it is recyclable.

"That's an example of a solution that worries me because no recovery system in New Zealand can deal with an item that small," he says. "So most of them are still going to end up at the dump."

George Weston Foods, the company that makes Ploughmans Bakery and Bürgen bread, has stopped using plastic tags a day after major competitor Goodman Fielder announced the same measure.

But the company says consumers will need to do their bit to ensure the solution works.

Mark Bosomworth, general manager baking division, George Weston Foods (NZ) Limited, said bread tags, like all small recyclable items, need to be consolidated before being recycled "and not just tossed into a recycling bin".

"There are many simple ways of doing this. The easiest is to put them in an envelope, which you then seal before it adding to your recycling, or you could wrap them up in newspaper. That way they will not fall out and get blown off the recycling processor belt. Alternatively they can be safely composted, as all the dyes used are water based."

McLeay says many Kiwis are confused about what can and can't be diverted from landfill, and doing the right thing is not always easy when messages change.

And the bread tags is a great example of this: "How many people are really going to collect these in an envelope before disposing of them?"

The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the issues for recycling companies such as Smart, as once you change the way people do something it is very difficult to reverse.

"During the first level 4 lockdown, some councils across New Zealand used the recycling bin to collect all the waste and that was a big problem after the lock down ended. Contamination levels became really high when the public continued to use it that way.

"It's very important that people do not use recycling bins for their normal rubbish," he said.

In Thames-Coromandel and Hauraki districts, some or all recyclable materials collected under alert level 4 have had to go to landfill, as the material recovery facilities that process recycling in our districts are not automated enough and have had to temporarily close.

Councils have had to promote the messaging that we should hold onto our recycling, because it was not getting recycled in level 4 lockdown.

Ministry of the Environment (MfE) officials are working with councils and recycling collection and recycling plant operators to keep recycling going wherever it is safe and practical to do so.

McLeay says while recycling would be possible to safely collect during alert level 4 due to it being done via a side loader, the problem lies at the processing end.

New Zealand has very few fully automated recycling sorting centres, and recovery facilities take recycling from all over the region including areas that might be "super spreader" locations.

"During level 4, all recycling is temporarily considered to be contaminated."

He said overseas studies had shown that for the first Covid-19 virus at least, there was no transmissability on recycling products themselves.

"People were concerned about touching product last year but the evidence was that recycling was safe once it got to processing facilities. However with delta in the community we need to take even greater care around worker safety – not only their interactions with the product but with each other as well.

"Even more concerning - at all levels - is when people put PPE, such as facemasks into the recycling bin."

High levels of contamination from non-recyclable items put into the recycling bin can send entire loads to landfill, made worse when that contamination are personal hygiene items such as face masks and tissues.

"Please, for the sake of our workers and the environment, do not put them in the recycling bin," McLeay said.

MfE does not have figures on how much recycling ended up in landfills nationally due to the Covid-19 pandemic and said it was not able to get these figures from councils.

Our councils are also suggesting we don't go mad with the clean-outs.

"These are extraordinary times and people are asked to try to minimise rubbish at home where possible.

"Kerbside collections and refuse transfer station services are for day-to-day household rubbish only. Now is not the time to be cleaning out the cupboards or garage," a spokeswoman said.

The Ministry of the Environment reports that most of the materials we use are disposed of to landfill and the rate of disposal is increasing, making us one of the highest generators of waste per person in the world.

- Over the next few months the public can have a say on several waste national initiatives including the proposed new national strategy for waste, updated waste legislation and product stewardship on tyres and large batteries.