KEY POINTS:
Green MP Nandor Tanczos says he has been given unanimous support from a select committee for his Waste Minimisation Bill that includes a $10-a-tonne levy on waste going to landfills.
Mr Tanczos said yesterday the bill was being supported by Labour and National and he expected to get support from most other parties.
Mr Tanczos introduced his bill into Parliament in 2006. But last year he said it would be changed, with the Government's agreement, so its requirements were easier and less expensive to implement.
There were two rounds of public consultation and amendments, jointly worked on by the Green Party and the Government, before a supplementary order paper of changes was sent to the select committee for scrutiny.
The original bill drew 316 submissions and there were 125 submissions on the amendments.
"The good thing is that just about everyone agreed we need to do something about all the resources we are tossing into landfills. The challenge has been agreeing what to do about it, but it seems we have got there."
He said the bill as reported back from the select committee included:
* Provisions for product stewardship, where plans are made to dispose of products past their useful life.
* A levy on waste going to landfills ($10 a tonne initially).
* Creating a fund for waste minimisation that would be split between local authorities and a national contestable fund.
* An independent Waste Advisory Board.
* Mandatory reporting requirements on waste streams.
Mr Tanczos said the levy on waste going to landfills would be reviewed after two years then at least every three years after that.
"There's a general feeling that it probably wants to be up around $30 a tonne to start generating a reasonable fund and also being a disincentive to landfilling."
However, there was also a feeling it was better to start with a smaller levy and fund and build it up overtime.
Mr Tanczos said some might say his original bill had been watered down but he could only get through those elements he received majority support for.
But he felt the "bones" of the original bill - like the levy on waste in landfills and product stewardship - were there.
"I think it will make a huge difference and have enormous benefit, even though perhaps we lost a few things along the way that I would like to have kept in."
For instance, there had been resistance to creating a new bureaucracy with the Waste Advisory Board and he would have liked it to have more functions. The board's function would include advising on criteria for the contestable half of the fund created by the levy on waste and advice on what things should be priority products for the product stewardship.
Mr Tanczos said priority products could include computer waste, compact fluorescent bulbs which contained mercury, waste oil, and agricultural chemicals.
The criteria for establishing a priority product were either that a product at the end of its life could cause significant environmental harm or that there were significant economic benefits to be gained from recovering the materials.
- NZPA
