KEY POINTS:
New Zealanders are recycling 60 per cent of their packaging, latest figures show.
The fourth progress report on the Packaging Accord 2004 - a packaging recycling plan to be completed by 2009 - shows that New Zealanders are recycling 60 per cent of packaging used.
Packaging Accord chairman Tony Nowell said New Zealand's 60 per cent packaging recovery rate as a percentage of consumption was ahead or on a par with that achieved in the European Union, United States and Australia.
Paper packaging had also achieved a new high of 78 per cent, he said.
The accord was signed in 2004 between the Packaging Council, the Ministry for the Environment, Local Government New Zealand and Recycling Operators of New Zealand.
Mr Nowell said the latest progress report showed the individual targets set for every type of packaging and container had been met or exceeded.
"We are collecting a massive 69,000 tonnes more packaging each year than we did at the outset.
"To put this in perspective this is the equivalent of eight football fields of packaging diverted from landfill for use either to create new packaging or to make new products."
Mr Nowell said since the start of the accord, consumption had increased by 5.4 per cent but was slowing, while packaging recovery had increased by 17 per cent and was continuing to outstrip consumption.
"Households are recycling more with a wider range of materials collected at kerbside which are being processed through more technologically advanced facilities."
Mr Nowell said that organisations had to make sure they balanced economic, environmental and social sustainability.
"As a packaged goods industry we have a responsibility to ensure that we source packaging materials and subsequently recycle them with both social and environmental considerations in mind.
"We cannot simply send our own problems offshore. This is not what New Zealanders expect when they put out their packaging for recycling."
Mr Nowell said as well as using international markets, it was important to continue to commercialise new recycling businesses in New Zealand.
He said the Make a Difference campaign to reduce the use of plastic bags also delivered excellent results, with 99 million fewer bags used each year.
So far the three signatories to the accord, Foodstuffs, Progressive Enterprise and The Warehouse have achieved a 14 per cent reduction in bag use and a 20 per cent reduction in the amount of plastic used in their bags, said Mr Nowell.
- NZPA
