Long awaited updates to the Waste Minimisation
and Litter Acts will not be introduced to the house this
parliamentary term. The government advised stakeholders that
no further work is progressing.
These updates
would have given business and households a modern, fit for
purpose law to help prevent and reduce waste, litter and
emissions.
Sue Coutts is Director of External Affairs
for Zero Waste Aotearoa. She said:
“Protecting our
environment and using resources efficiently are apparently
not priorities for the government.”
“New
Zealanders want better recycling systems. They want
alternatives to disposal. They want to make the shift away
from this throwaway economy. The 2026 Kantar Better
Futures Report shows that New Zealanders expect
government, business and brands to do more to reduce
environmental impacts.”
“Successive governments
have said they’ll update the law. The background work is
done. The sector and the public have been consulted twice on
the proposals. We’ve been waiting for six years. These
straightforward changes would help the country catch up with
modern reuse and recycling systems”
“Time and time
again we’re told by the Minister for the Environment that
the law will be updated. The government is stringing New
Zealanders along by saying they’ll progress this when they
have no intention of doing so.”
“The deadline for
phasing out PVC and polystyrene food and beverage packaging
also keeps getting pushed back. Policy flip flops between
governments are a major barrier to progress and investment
in the reuse, recycling and waste
sector.”
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“Companies have already pulled back from
commitments to ensure packaging is reusable, recyclable or
compostable by 2025 because the systems that would make that
possible are not in place.”
“Central government is
responsible for making producers set up and fund reuse and
recycling systems for their products and packaging. The work
on this has been done; now, it just needs to go through
Parliament.”
The original Waste Minimisation Act was
passed with cross party support back in 2008.
Zero
Waste Aotearoa calls on all parties to make updating the
Waste Minimisation Act an early priority in the next
government. That way, New Zealand can finally make some
progress on reducing waste.
Notes and Relevant
Links
Kantar Better Futures 2026
https://www.kantarnewzealand.com/latest-thinking/better-futures/
P9
New Zealanders make good use of limited waste management
services they have access to
P12 – 87% of New
Zealanders expect business/brands to take responsibility for
their environmental and social impacts
P15 New
Zealanders expect Government, Business and Brands to do
more
MfE and MCERT
The original work on the
Waste legislation updates was done by the Ministry for the
Environment (MfE), which has now been incorporated into The
Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and
Transport.
MCERT – Governments Waste work
programme
https://environment.govt.nz/what-government-is-doing/areas-of-work/waste/work-programme-on-waste/
Link
to list of cabinet papers released
https://environment.govt.nz/what-government-is-doing/cabinet-papers-and-regulatory-impact-statements/amending-the-waste-legislation-policy-approvals/
Exactly
the same thing happened at the end of the last parliamentary
term with 7 cabinet papers and drafting proposals left
sitting at the bottom of the
pile.
