Kai rite: Use your power as a consumer to say no to plastic

Emma Horgan-Heke says in landfill, plastic packaging contributes to toxic leachate, harmful cancer-causing chemicals like PFAS entering our soil, and methane production. Photo / Warren Buckland

Aotearoa has a waste problem. On average, we produce more than 700kg of waste per person per year.

Let this figure sink in. Because that is what plastic in our waste is doing to our environment, sinking in. It's in our bodies, water, soil and food.

Landfill may be out of sight, but it's not out of our environment. In landfill, plastic packaging contributes to toxic leachate, harmful cancer-causing chemicals like PFAS entering our soil, methane production and those pesky microplastics we keep hearing about.

We're talking about this issue, but what are we actually doing about it?

Let's break down one stream of waste - single-use takeaway packaging - think coffee cups, takeaway containers, plastic cutlery, plastic water bottles, etc.

In Aotearoa, coffee drinkers go through a staggering 245 million throwaway coffee cups in a year.

The production of this packaging requires natural resources to make and transport it, including fossil fuels, trees, bamboo, potatoes, corn and water.

The endless creation of this packaging accelerates carbon emissions and depletes resources. We're following a pattern of extracting resources from the Earth, turning it into things that we use once, then throw into landfill and start the process again. It's beyond unsustainable.

In my work, I often hear people ask, "Can't we just recycle this packaging?"

It's true that many streams of plastic are becoming recyclable, with Napier and Hastings kerbside collection joining us in accepting plastic #5 this year. But half of the world's plastic production is single-use. And more than 90 per cent is never recycled.

Then, you might ask, "Could we use compostable packaging, and compost it?"

Unfortunately not. No facility in Hawke's Bay - and many other regions - processes compostable packaging due to the PFAS and PLA contained in it. Both chemicals are harmful for human health and our environment so we don't want them to be composted into our soils. Compostable packaging, even with that misleading green triangular logo on the side, is still single-use, wasting energy and resources.

But progress is happening.

At the Environment Centre on 201 Southland Rd we now take 21 streams of specialist recycling that can't be picked up at kerbside.

Nationally, in 2019 plastic shopping bags disappeared overnight from supermarkets and a new group of plastic products disappeared this month. This is an extinction we can get excited about.

From the beginning of the month, single-use plastic cotton buds, drink stirrers, polystyrene takeaway packaging and most plastic meat trays can no longer be sold or manufactured in Aotearoa.

A further endangered species of plastic to be phased out in mid-2023 will include single-use plastic plates, bowls, cutlery, single-use plastic produce bags and non-compostable produce labels and the final curtain call for any remaining PVC and polystyrene food and beverage packaging comes in mid-2025.

As concerned citizens, we can get ahead of the curve and choose to make a systemic shift from single-use towards reuse models like reusable cups, bowls and plates. Before mass industrialisation, the reuse of everyday items was a standard feature of human life. At the Environment Centre we have just had a mobile wash station built to service reusable schemes at events and beyond.

We can also use our voices and purchasing power. Tell your coffee shop and take-away place that you want reusable items and to get in touch with us at the Environment Centre. Drop a line to your club or school fundraising committee asking them to consider reusable items at the next fete/bake sale/gala.

As consumers we have the power to change things to benefit people and the planet. Let's use it wisely.

• Emma Horgan-Heke is chief executive of the Environment Centre Hawke's Bay. Get in touch: climateaction@hbrc.govt.nz