![Go to home page [Ministry for the Environment]](/images/logo.gif){kind=logo}
Current issues for waste management
Waste is an important issue for New Zealand and the world because of the impacts it can have on the health of the community and on the natural and physical environment.
Waste is also a large issue for New Zealand – almost 3.2 million tonnes goes to landfills each year.
Waste represents an inefficient use of our limited resources, and the ability to use resources efficiently is a central tenet of New Zealand’s sustainable future.
To create a sustainable New Zealand, we need to reduce our waste and better manage what waste we do produce. We need to redesign, reduce, reuse and recycle our resources.
Reducing and managing waste is everybody’s responsibility. Those who can and must play a part in moving towards zero waste and a sustainable New Zealand include waste generators, central and local government, the waste industry and its professional bodies, community and voluntary groups, businesses and individuals.
Significant progress has been made on managing and reducing waste in New Zealand but there is still more to be done. There are, and always will be, challenges in better managing waste in New Zealand.
Our low volumes of waste (by international standards) due to our small population, the difficulty in collecting waste due to our low population density and diverse geography, as well as the changing types of waste generated, make it challenging to develop and sustain onshore recycling and reprocessing facilities.
New Zealand’s collection and reprocessing infrastructure is still developing and is currently limited by a lack of dedicated funding. We don’t want to export waste overseas if we can reuse it here. Nor do we want the safe disposal of our waste to be some other country’s problem.
Another challenge is to ensure material sent for reprocessing is of high quality (ie that it is clean with different waste types separated). This will ensure the best environmental and economical return on the waste we reuse, recycle or sell.
A lack of comprehensive, national data on waste generation and management makes it difficult to accurately measure our progress and plan suitable infrastructure.
Towards zero waste
To address some of these challenges, the government announced in February 2007 a significant work programme to improve New Zealand’s environmental sustainability credentials, including waste policy.
The government and the Ministry for the Environment will take the lead on waste and recycling issues, in line with the broader sustainability agenda and the New Zealand Waste Strategy.
The government wants responsibility for waste management to be appropriately shared between central government, local government, business and communities.
To achieve this, the existing waste management framework and expectations are being reviewed.
Dedicated waste minimisation funding
The government has already announced its commitment to securing dedicated waste funding for further solid waste minimisation - including the improvement of national infrastructure as it would like to see processing occurring onshore in the future - by introducing a levy on waste disposal.
Recycling facilities in public places
The government announced in Budget 2007 that it has dedicated $4.6 million over three years for the establishment of a network of recycling facilities in public places.
Product stewardship schemes
The government is also responding to industry calls for greater support of their already established voluntary product stewardship schemes.
The government supports product stewardship schemes, especially for products that cause particular environmental harm or pose disposal problems. These specific waste streams, such as electronic waste, are increasing in volume and pose high risks to people and the environment. Product stewardship schemes are the most appropriate way to manage these.
Review of progress against targets
The 2006 review of progress against targets report highlighted that good data is needed to measure our progress against the New Zealand Waste Strategy targets and to monitor trends in waste generation, recovery, and disposal needed to target future waste minimisation activities.
Measuring waste
A core set of environmental indicators, including those for waste, were confirmed in April 2007. They will form the basis of a national state of the environment report due to be released by the Ministry at the end of this year. The report called Environment New Zealand 2007 will provide information about our environment and adds to existing topic-specific reports produced yearly by the Ministry.
The primary indicator for waste in New Zealand is the volume (in cubic metres) and composition of solid waste disposed of to landfill. Waste quantity is often reported in tonnes because this is a readily understandable way of describing large quantities of material. In some situations, waste quantity is expressed in cubic metres because doing so is useful for some purposes such as explaining the remaining capacity of landfills. Composition is most frequently reported using the twelve primary types of waste defined in the 2002 Solid Waste Analysis Protocol.
New waste management legislation
There is currently a Bill before Parliament, the Waste Minimisation (Solids) Bill, which encourages a reduction in the amount of waste we generate and dispose of in New Zealand and lessen the environmental harm of waste.
The Bill is currently going through the Committee of the Whole stage in Parliament. The first debate was held on Wednesday 30 July.
The transcript of this debate will be available on Hansard in the next few days.
The Committee has yet to finalise its debate before the Bill can proceed to its third reading.
The current version of the Bill is available via the NZ parliament website.
If you have any queries, please contact Jeff Seadon, tel. 04 439 7630 or mobile 0274 964 264. Email: jeff.seadon@mfe.govt.nz
Future focus
To date New Zealand has only touched the tip of the waste iceberg by managing the easier waste streams (such as recycling paper and cans) and the high risk waste streams (such as hazardous wastes). Now we will be focusing on the two largest waste streams: organic waste and construction and demolition waste.
Organic waste
It is important to reduce the amount of organic waste going to landfills as it produces methane – a greenhouse gas – and a major contributor to climate change.
The Ministry will be encouraging households and industry to divert more green waste, food waste and commercial organic waste from landfills. This includes developing comprehensive nationwide infrastructure.
The Ministry is also working with the organics recycling industry to further boost its research and development capabilities.
This will allow producers to market natural products along with traditional inorganic fertilisers and pesticides. Entering these markets will create a huge increase in demand for a high quality, consistent product which should increase diversion, collection, and reprocessing of organic wastes.
Construction and demolition waste
Construction and demolition (C&D) waste work will focus on improving the monitoring and reporting of the C&D waste going to landfills and cleanfills, specifically timber, concrete, gib board and plastic wrap. The government is also focused on identifying and increasing opportunities for reprocessing and reusing this waste.
Next steps
The government will work closely with local government, business and communities to achieve zero waste and, wherever possible, the recovery and reuse of waste will be economically viable.
The government is also keen to engage the general public and provide ways to raise people’s awareness of the need to minimise waste and encourage them to play their part.
