The Waste Minimisation Act 2008 includes a number of tools to encourage waste minimisation. One of these is the declaration of a ‘priority product’ – which requires a product stewardship scheme to be developed for a particular ‘product’ or type of waste.
The Government is proposing having regulated product stewardship for six priority products: tyres, electrical and electronic products, agrichemicals and their containers, refrigerants and other synthetic greenhouse gases, farm plastics, and packaging.
They are currently consulting on this – read more about the consultation here https://www.mfe.govt.nz/consultations/priorityproducts or download the consultation document here.
- Check out ZWN In-Depth Guide to writing a Priority Products submission
- Check out ZWN’s Dummies Guide to writing a Priority Products submission
We believe this consultation is an important part of the process for getting real change to the way waste is dealt within Aotearoa. The Zero Waste Network fully supports the declaration of priority product as a tool for achieving waste minimisation. We’re pleased to see the proposed list reflects public opinion – for example the inclusion of packaging is a result of the public wanting action. We know the current approach isn’t working and we firmly believe that for us to have an effective recycling system we need regulation.
We’re in the process of writing our own submission, and we want to support our members and stakeholders to write theirs so we’ve developed a interim guide for those keen beans that want to get stuck in. You can find that here.
We’ll post our full submission once it’s complete.
The deadline for submissions is Friday 4 October at 5pm.