New Zealand is set to introduce a series of measures in a bid to further cut single-use packaging for food and beverage products.
The initiatives, including targeting the use of polystyrene meat trays, cups and takeaway food containers, follow a report issued by Professor Juliet Gerrard, the chief science advisor to New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
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“Our ban on plastic bags has already made a difference as we confront our enormous long-term challenge to tackle plastic waste,” Ardern said.
“There’s more to do and our next steps to tackle plastic waste include setting goals to shift away from low-value and hard-to-recycle plastic
“Our first target will be to move away from single-use packaging and beverage containers made of hard-to-recycle PVC and polystyrene. Examples include polystyrene meat trays, cups and takeaway food containers. We will work towards ensuring that these are made of high-value alternatives like PET, HDPE and polypropylene, which can be recycled and reprocessed.”
Ardern said the New Zealand government would look to “stimulate [the] innovation and development of solutions to the soft plastic problem” and speed up work on “better and more consistent kerbside collection of recyclables”.
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By GlobalDataThe Rethinking Plastics in Aotearoa New Zealand report, calls for a “national plastics action plan” to guide New Zealand’s “transition to a circular economy for plastics”.
Other recommendations from the report include moves to improve plastics data collection, for “consistency” in the “design, use and disposal” of plastic and for better recycling systems, as well as for “sector-specific approaches to rethinking plastics”.
Prof. Gerrard said: “We convened a panel of experts from within and beyond academia earlier in the year and set out with a bold and broad scope – to find ways to reduce the size of the plastic shadow that is cast by modern life. Plastic is everywhere and tackling the problem of plastic waste needs a systems change, a collection of adjustments – some large, some small – across all aspects of society.”
