Damon Rusden: Tackling plastic bags starts at local level

Damon Rusden

Plastic bags - we use billions of them.

They average 12 minutes before entering our waterways (or the general environment), they are not biodegradable and our current government initiative to stop plastic bags entering landfills ("The Soft Plastic Packaging Recycling Scheme") have only picked up 2 per cent.

They are nothing but damaging to our environment and a sink-hole for money in wasted attempts to deal with this issue. Why do we still have them?

My preference would be an all-out ban. It would halt the resurgence of plastic bag use found in Ireland and South Africa after they introduced a levy with was only effective temporarily. We have international models of successful bans in France and Morocco that New Zealand can imitate.

I realise that a ban is often instinctual, and not always the best method. Phasing them out provides an opportunity to adjust, softens the shock and could produce the revenue to help the public transition. Say, introducing a small levy to promote use of sustainable carry bags, and then using that money to subsidise said bags. Sounds like a great idea, right? The Greens think so. That's why we have a levy as policy.

Napier's mayor does not think it is a great idea, but more than half of New Zealand's mayors do. So who is in the right?

The history of levying plastic bags has, in most cases, been one of reducing unnecessary pollution. The most successful is Great Britain, where a 5p levy reduced plastic bag use by 85 per cent within a few months.

In NZ, the majority of the public (both polls and people I've talked to) support a levy with the end goal of a ban. We all, or know of people, who waste plastic bags. They accumulate, and end up being dumped in one form or another. A levy is about incentivising better public practice, with the benefit of environmental protection and creating new ways of transporting goods.

We need to change our current method of using and abusing soft plastic. I understand the convenience of plastic bags. What I also understand is the enormous waste, damage and cost that we are experiencing because of this convenience. A levy would prompt individuals to change their pattern of behaviour with the urgency we need far more than education around the subject would.

As one of the worst offenders for public bag use in the world per capita (hundreds per person), the need for leadership at a local and government level on this is critical.

Napier has a lot of issues with pollution. I do not need to discuss in details our rivers and our drinking water. The council is spending hundreds of thousands to clean up the mess, and it is penalising ratepayers, at a local level, to deal with soft plastic. The difference is that with regards to plastic bags they are unwanted and the issue has proven to be easily solved with ready alternatives.

I see hundreds of children campaigning to phase out or ban plastic bags. I also see high-school students taking the initiative. I see campaigns by adults for the same. There is a consensus in the public, and gaining momentum within local leadership.

The world is changing, and the reduction of plastic bags plays only a small role in that. But it is one that has appeal and viable solutions. And it is one that we can push for now, while also equipping ourselves to deal with the larger problems.

While a signature is just that, it is a reflection of public demand. And I call on the Napier mayor to be forward-thinking, as I do all the mayors who haven't signed. We need to do more.

This is one small step. But it is one giant leap for our local environment.

Damon Rusden is the Green Party candidate for Napier in the upcoming general election.