Plastic not fantastic in war on waste

A typical pile of plastic, glass and cans waiting to be recycled at the Waitakere City transfer depot. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

The average New Zealander recycles 100kg of packaging a year - 58 per cent of what they use - but recycling of plastic lags well behind tins, paper and glass.

Figures out today from industry body the Packaging Council show that people are using 14 per cent more packaging than they were five years ago, but recycling 26 per cent more.

Packaging Council executive director Paul Curtis said he was pleased with the results, given that the recession had had a "major impact" on commodity prices for paper, steel and plastics.

"New Zealanders would fill about 22,000 shipping containers with their recycling each year."

The numbers mark the end of the 2004 voluntary Packaging Accord between the council, the Ministry for the Environment, Local Government New Zealand and Recycling Operators of New Zealand.

The Government did not renew the accord when it expired this year. Instead, under the Waste Minimisation Act, passed a year ago this month, industry-designed "product stewardship schemes" will set out how each type of packaging will be dealt with over its lifetime.

The ministry can step in with a compulsory scheme if industry efforts fail, but that assessment will not be made for at least two years.

The latest figures showed 24 per cent of plastic packaging was recycled compared with 57 to 74 per cent of other materials.

That beat the target of 23 per cent set by the accord, but fell well short of the rates achieved by glass, paper, aluminium and steel.

Industry experts have said that the New Zealand recycling sector is too small to handle some of the more specialised plastic recycling, and much used plastic is sent overseas, unrecycled, for processing.

Mr Curtis said councils had different policies for collecting the seven main types of plastic, and most collected only one or two types.

A big part of the unrecycled plastic was post-consumer plastic wrap and shopping bags, which were not collected from the kerb in most places, he said.

Manufacturers can take plastic film and turn it into new products such as road barriers and plastic reels but good channels do not yet exist to get it to them.

"There are great markets for it ... It's just a matter of finding the pathways [to collect it]," said Mr Curtis.

Under new waste rules, different industries - glass, paper, plastic, aluminium and steel - are expected to submit product stewardship schemes for the ministry's approval.

The glass industry, which operates a voluntary levy system to help find new uses for glass, has already submitted a scheme. Paper is tipped to be next, followed by plastic.

Packaging Council president David Carter, of Lion Nathan, has said the new stewardship schemes will be more holistic than the accord, which focused on waste, litter and recycling.

He said new schemes would look at minimising waste from packaging design, the manufacturing process, weight per product and carbon produced per product.

Environment Minister Nick Smith said this year that he expected the new law to "beef up agreements with industry around reducing packaging".

New Zealanders recycled 428 tonnes of packaging last year.

GREEN OPTIONS TO BECOME MORE COMMON

Degradable plastics made from materials such as soy, rice, corn, potato and whey will become more common as shoppers look for more environmentally friendly options to traditional plastics, says the plastics industry.

The industry has launched a guide to degradable plastics, signed by Frucor, Huhtamaki and other makers and users of packaging, to encourage manufacturers to label honestly how long different types of degradable plastic take to break down in the environment, and whether they are compostable.

Plastics New Zealand said degradable plastic was being looked at by manufacturers for use in trays, film wrap and water bottles.

It now made up 1 per cent of all plastic globally and that was expected to rise to 2 to 5 per cent in the next three years.

RECYCLING ALL THAT RUBBISH

2008

ALUMINIUM
Consumed: 6505 tonnes
Proportion recycled: 74 per cent
Packaging accord target: 65 per cent

GLASS
Consumed: 229,151 tonnes
Recycled: 64 per cent
Packaging accord target: 55 per cent

PAPER
Consumed: 326,300 tonnes
Recycled: 70 per cent
Packaging accord target: 70 per cent

PLASTICS
Consumed: 154,381 tonnes
Recycled: 24 per cent
Packaging accord target: 23 per cent

STEEL
Consumed:18,865 tonnes
Recycled: 57 per cent
Packaging accord target: 43 per cent

TOTAL
Consumed: 735,202 tonnes
Recycled: 58 per cent

2007

ALUMINIUM
Consumed: 4750 tonnes
Recycled: 88 per cent
Packaging accord target: 65 per cent

GLASS
Consumed: 223,200 tonnes
Recycled: 62 per cent
Packaging accord target: 55 per cent

PAPER
Consumed: 311,300 tonnes
Recycled: 75 per cent
Packaging accord target: 70 per cent

PLASTICS
Consumed: 147,616 tonnes
Recycled: 23 per cent
Packaging accord target: 23 per cent

STEEL
Consumed: 20,235 tonnes
Recycled: 47 per cent
Packaging accord target: 43 per cent

TOTAL
Consumed: 707,101 tonnes
Recycled: 59 per cent