KEY POINTS:
That plastic milk bottle you just chucked in the rubbish because you can't be fussed washing it could be transformed into a container, a bucket, piping ... even a compost bin.
Or it could be shipped to China to be burnt in a waste-to-energy incinerator, generating toxic emissions to choke the planet. More than half the plastic recovered in New Zealand for recycling is shipped to Asian countries where it may be put to environmentally and socially-dubious uses.
At the same time, Astron Plastics, one of our biggest recyclers, has to import milk bottles (cleaned and chopped into flakes) all the way from Britain, which it melts into tiny pellets to serve as raw material for new products - mostly made overseas.
Welcome to the global melting pot that is recycling, New Zealand style. Soaring oil prices, increasing landfill charges and global warming have brought renewed focus on minimising the waste mountain. In most cases, it takes less energy to remanufacture existing resources than start afresh, but getting the framework right for recycling to flourish is like chasing seagulls.
For the Government, developing local markets to recycle as much as possible is crucial to its sustainability drive. It's supporting a Green Party bill that will impose a levy on all waste sent to landfills and make producers and retailers responsible for disposal of their products.
But as the Government waves the big stick to promote recycling, some of the country's biggest councils stand accused of encouraging householders to be lazy. Auckland City and Manukau intend to follow North Shore and Waitakere's lead in asking householders to lump all their recycling in one basket: giant 240-litre wheelie bins - the ones Auckland City threw away six years ago. They're going even further - throwing paper into the mix as well.
The move has raised industry fears that lucrative paper and glass recycling could be jeopardised by cross-contamination. But in recycling, nothing is crystal clear.
Take plastics, Only 21 per cent of waste is recycled but Astron says it could find markets for all the plastic New Zealand throws away. It processes plastic waste from more than 300 firms at its East Tamaki and Christchurch factories, yet market economics mean it has to import high density polyethylene - the grade of plastic used in milk bottles.
Insatiable demand from Asia means kerbside collectors can get a better price shipping baled plastic to Hong Kong than selling locally. Whether this is environmentally and socially desirable is another matter (see sidebar).
It's the same with PET (soft drink) bottles and other household plastics - markets in China, India, Malaysia and Australia will take all the plastics kerbside collectors can throw at them.
Astron does some "closing the loop" at its East Tamaki factory - churning out protective covers for underground cables and flat plastic "slip sheets" which exporters use as an alternative to wooden pallets. But most of its resin pellets are exported for conversion into new consumer goods: polypropylene into containers and pipes; PET into pillow fillers and clothing; polyvinyls into packaging.
"It comes down to whether the Government wants plastic to stay in New Zealand or not," says Astron chief executive Richard Anyon. "We don't believe in subsidies - it's about having a framework which allows materials to be processed into a reasonable form."
Plastics NZ chief executive Robin Martin says local and central government could do more. "We would love to have far more processed here but the economics are very complex.
"If the Government decreed that their departments bought rubbish bins from recycled plastic we would run out of material to make those bins. We could make road signs out of recycled plastic instead of aluminium.
"There are so many inconsistencies. The Government is saying we have to recycle more but the Government won't buy. Some councils won't buy rubbish bags from recycled material because it costs more."
It's a similar story with paper - the most lucrative item in the domestic waste stream. About half is reprocessed at Carter Holt Harvey mills at Penrose and Kinleith to make cardboard packaging; the rest is exported with no value added.
Glass has been subject to price fluctuations due to oversupply.
The Government's solution is the Waste Minimisation Bill, with its planned levy on waste sent to landfills and "product stewardship" scheme - making manufacturers and retailers take more responsibility.
The measures, now before a Parliamentary select committee, are touted as encouraging recycling and reducing waste. But industries are railing against increased waste disposal costs and fear that the levy proceeds - supposed to fund new recycling initiatives - will be diverted by central and local government.
Diverting householders in Auckland City and Manukau this week is the concept of lumping all recycling in one big wheelie bin. For Auckland City residents, it's almost full circle: six years after 240-litre wheelie bins and one recycling crate were swapped for pint-sized models and up to three recycling crates, the old dinosaurs are being wheeled back in.
In Manukau, wheelie bins will replace plastic bag collections. Both councils are considering tenders with a view to beginning early next year.
The councils were ticked-off this week by glass recyclers and Environment Minister David Benson-Pope, who urged all councils to "get serious about recycling and not opt for the cheapest and easiest household collection systems."
But Auckland and Manukau say they are partly responding to complaints that kerbside recycling produces unsightly mess, with streets strewn with windblown paper and plastic. Another issue is the safety of contractors collecting and sorting rubbish on busy streets.
Some suspect the real reason is cost savings.
"Bureaucrats are holding back residents' participation in reducing their environmental impact," says Recycling Operators of NZ chairman Bruce Gledhill. "Yet surveys show residents are willing to pay more in rates to recycle than councils are charging."
Glass and paper recyclers stand to lose most. The problem is that much co-mingled material, particularly paper and glass, becomes "contaminated" and unusable. Contamination includes the mixing of different colours - green, brown and clear glass - and of glass shards with plastics and paper which may themselves be contaminated with food waste.
A glass mountain in Onehunga is a growing testament to the downside of co-mingling in Waitakere and North Shore. Glass reprocessor O-I New Zealand says between 30 and 50 per cent of the collected glass is unsuitable.
Glass contamination is also a potential threat to paper recycling. Fine glass shards can damage equipment used in paper reprocessing - and the packaging produced from recycled paper and cardboard may be unsuitable for food goods.
As one insider says: "Why are we heading down a path that's going to destroy the integrity of a lot of these products?"
Critics say council officials have been seduced by a visit to Australia, where co-mingling has boosted collections but has produced downsides for glass and paper recycling.
Auckland City Council Works Committee chairman Neil Abel denies that cost-cutting is driving the switch, but acknowledges the council is worried about steep rises in landfill tipping fees and transportation costs.
"Reducing the waste going into landfill - that's our overarching objective," says Abel.
"The key thing with co-mingling is that the collection increases, as has occurred in North Shore and Waitakere.
"I believe we should be collecting it, sorting it and reprocessing it in Auckland, not transporting it around the country if possible."
He says a $20 million planned materials recovery facility to sort Auckland and Manukau recycling will deal with the downsides of co-mingling. Tenders have just closed for the proposed facility, to be privately built, owned and operated on council land near Pikes Pt, Onehunga.
Bidders, including landfill operator Waste Management, maintain high-tech sorting equipment will overcome the contamination problems.
"It will have the technology to deal with contamination and to separate green, clear and brown glass," says Abel. "If we run into problems we will look at alternative markets for the glass such as roading aggregate."
But Abel, a Green Party member, says that despite the success of kerbside recycling, both Auckland and Manukau are sending more waste to landfills (mainly due to population growth) and something needs to be done.
Officials from both councils have picked over our household waste and found our green commitment lacking. By weight, nearly half the material sent to landfills could be composted, including kitchen scraps and garden clippings. Another 15-17 per cent is paper.
It's arguable that councils themselves could do more to promote recycling. In Auckland City, for example, the introduction of three bins was not backed with encouragement for householders to become fastidious separators. Most of us draw the line at washing pet food tins.
There's also kitchen angst over what materials collectors are prepared to take, and variation between council areas. For years, contractors accepted only grades one and two plastics; even icecream containers were off limits. In January, Streetsmart - the kerbside collector in Manukau, Auckland City, Rodney, Papakura, Whangarei, Thames-Coromandel and Waipa - announced it would take plastics grades one to seven. But some councils were lukewarm about promoting the move, citing past "confusion" when market conditions changed and contractors cut collections.
But with landfill costs rising, domestic waste is in the councils' sights. Next on Neil Abel's wishlist is wheelie bin recycling of food scraps and garden waste at a planned composting plant on the council's Onehunga site.
The potential savings from diverting food scraps and garden clippings from landfills are considerable; Abel hopes a kerbside organic collection will start within three years. He says the plant could even take biosolids from the Mangere sewage treatment plant - "not necessarily reprocessed as compost but into other products such as biogas and biofuels." Talk about closing the loop.
Food scrap recycling could gain further impetus through the planned waste levy - the other shadow on the waste mountain. Although the levy is intended to foster recycling initiatives, industries fear the impact of higher dumping charges and question what will become of the funds raised.
"It's a blunt tax likely to lead to market distortions and perverse outcomes," says Paul Curtis, executive director of the Packaging Council. "There's no doubt that a levy will increase the cost of recycling [as firms pass on costs]. Landfill charges are too high already, particularly those in private ownership."
The country's largest recycler, Sims Pacific Metals, is seeking relief from the proposed levy, claiming it is a serious threat to a company with "no control over the waste stream it receives". At its Otahuhu plant, Sims processes metals from cans to car bodies and whiteware into wire rod and reinforcing bars. Landfill charges for residual wastes are its biggest overhead, says general manager Angus Barrett. With tipping costs rising and raw materials such as home appliances increasingly mixed with plastics, the economics of metal recycling are increasingly marginal.
"Any legislation is only going to increase the cost of business," says Brian Slingsby, general manager of glass reprocessor O-I New Zealand. "I would rather spend money on developing lightweight products and better-designed packaging."
That's exactly what the levy will enable, say proponents. Bruce Gledhill says it's an incentive to find alternatives to disposal and will provide "seed capital" for trialling new processes and techniques.
"Our concern is it won't be reasonably distributed; councils may see fit to apply the money to running services themselves."
Richard Lloyd, of Christchurch waste recycler Terranova, says the suggested initial levy of $10 a tonne won't be enough to change behaviour.
And New Zealand has little influence on the foreign manufacturers of the vast majority of consumer goods.
The Greens' bill has other potential impacts. Product stewardship - making manufacturers and retailers responsible for disposal of their goods - may lead to the re-introduction of container deposit schemes which would undermine kerbside recycling.
The one thing the industry agrees on is the need for certainty of supply, long-term contracts and stable prices. As a country we have to look at ways the levy can foster the recycling industry, says Gledhill.
"We are not greenies, we are pragmatic business people who need a cash return. The result of our success is a green benefit."
