Answers to your questions

Plastic packaging (excl. beverage containers) was declared a priority product under section 9 of the Waste Minimisation Act 2008 in July 2020. This means that a product stewardship scheme for plastic packaging must be developed and all producers of plastic packaging must be part of the scheme.

All plastic packaging used for consumer goods sold via retail or wholesale. This will include liquid paperboard and compostable plastic. Drinks containers which are intended to be covered through a proposed Container Refund Scheme are excluded from this project.

Corrigendum—Declaration of Priority Products Notice 2020 – 2020-go4533 – New Zealand Gazette

“All packaging used for consumer goods at retail or wholesale level (excluding beverage containers) made of plastic resin codes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7, singly or in combination with one or more of these plastics or any non-plastic material, and not refilled by the producer for retail sale or able to be refilled by the consumer at a retail establishment.”

The project objectives are set out in the Deed of Funding:

1. Within two months of project commencement, establish the project group structures (multi stakeholder Steering Group, Governance Group and Technical Advisory Groups)
2. Develop a Request for Proposal (RFP) procurement process to engage research consultants in milestone 2-5
3. By end of project, submit a Steering Group majority (greater than 50%) supported final report on a New Zealand Plastic Packaging Product Stewardship Scheme design and its implementation
4. By end of project, recommend a not-for-profit Product Stewardship Organisation (PSO) structure responsible for the delivery of the plastic packaging priority product scheme and scheme design that will be able to meet the requirements of the Waste Minimisation Act, including sections 12,14, and 15.

1. A Product Stewardship scheme that is both equitable and commercially successful.
2. The quantity and quality of processing capacity gives New Zealand resilience so that the impact of global shocks is minimised
3. Amount of plastic used is reduced and move from around 22% recycling rate with the ambition to increase this towards 85% through increased recovery and processing capacity
4. Deliver a step change in attitudes and behaviour so that waste becomes a resource and plastic packaging circles back into plastic packaging.

The Packaging Forum and NZ Food & Grocery Council are joint leaders of the project management process.

The Packaging Forum has over a decade’s experience with the development and management of voluntary product stewardship schemes for glass packaging, soft plastic, and public place recycling/litter. The NZFGC is part of a global leadership group on product stewardship and is working with the Australian Food Grocery Council in the design of a soft plastic packaging product stewardship scheme and is directly engaged in the research currently conducted to support this work

The project manager is Rob Langford, and the Project Coordinator is Lyn Mayes. Both have wide experience of project management and setting up and operating product stewardship schemes.

Product Stewardship Schemes are also commonly known as Producer Responsibility Schemes because the costs of running the scheme are typically borne by the producer.

It is imperative that producers are actively engaged and lead the project because they are responsible for the choices made around plastic packaging.

That said, this is a co-design process and consumer and community groups, government, producers, and processors will be involved in the decision-making process throughout the project.

This is industry’s opportunity to leave a genuine legacy for New Zealand and to help move from being amongst the worst in the OECD for waste generation to the best. We are currently adding thousands of tonnes of plastic packaging to landfill every year. We must turn the tide and act to stop the loss of valuable plastic and keep plastic packaging in circulation. There is a stark choice – waste to landfill or a pristine environment where our land is maintained for productive use.

The project will be chaired by Tony Nowell, an experienced director with broad industry, government, international trade, and governance experience. Tony will lead the project management team and has ultimate responsibility for delivering the outcome.

The project budget is $1,361,000 and Government is funding $994,898 or 73% through the Waste Minimisation Fund. The Packaging Forum and Food & Grocery Council are contributing $366,102 in direct funding.

This budget relates to the research and design process and assessing the product stewardship models which best fit the New Zealand priority product criteria and the specific requirements for our country. The costs associated with implementing and operating the scheme are outside of this project.

The project will review schemes which are already operating around the world to select the best fit for New Zealand. Typically, producers pay based on the amount and type of plastic which they place on the market. How much of that cost will be passed onto the consumer is likely to vary.

The project will commission a financial analysis (cost benefit analysis) of any proposed solution(s) to understand the real operational costs and how this will be funded.

Depending on how the scheme operates, this may involve attributing a recovery cost to the packaging.

Tools such as eco modulation will be investigated to encourage producers to focus on most easily recycled plastics.

The project will look at how plastic is currently collected (or not) and whether there is a more efficient and effective way to do this.

This will be one of the research components of the project. There is around 100,000 Tonnes of plastic used by the food & grocery sector based on what our members report. Estimates suggest the total plastic consumption is around 200,000 Tonnes.

The project team is working with GS1 which captures packaging data and IRI which captures retail sales to determine how best to know what is being placed on the market by resin type.

This information is not readily available, but estimates suggest 22-30%.

One of the most important parts of the project is to identify not just how the plastic packaging will be collected but how and where it will be recycled.

We know from our experience with setting up the voluntary soft plastics recycling scheme that there must be processing capacity available to recycle what is collected, with a preference that this is on shore

The project will create a blueprint for what plastic recycling could look like for New Zealand in the medium and long term.

What we have seen in other countries is that it’s important to have a transparent process which looks at all the costs involved in the collection and recycling process. This includes looking at the cost of the kerbside collection process, separating out materials at the MRF, community or take back

options, transport to end markets and the cost of processing the materials and offsetting costs against any revenue received for the recovered plastic.

During the first project milestone, we will be identifying the people to participate in governance, steering and technical advisory groups. In addition, once the research is underway there will be a series of meetings involving multiple stakeholders to “workshop” proposals.

There will also be a project website page to ensure information is publicly available in a timely manner.

Aspects of the project may result in diverse views, whereby a clear direction cannot be achieved. To ensure clarity the project has defined majority agreement as greater than 50%. If consensus cannot be reached, a minority report will be written to take this divergence of views into account. In the unlikely event a direction is not reached the independent chair will facilitate a position through consultation with relevant stakeholders.

The Governance Group will comprise experienced Board members to provide advice to the Steering Group and Project Management to provide the project with checks and balances, fiduciary oversight, and risk mitigation. It will provide independent advice to the detailed consideration by the Steering Group and the Project Management and will be looking out to the future.

The Steering Group is the decision-making body collectively comprising community, business, industry, and public sector leaders that understand plastic packaging from design to recovery. They will make sure the representative views of stakeholders are taken into consideration in the decision process and will steer the project management team.

The project will develop a communications platform to share and receive information from any party or person. This is important to provide everyone with the opportunity to have a say and we will be interested in all correspondence as the project develops.

The Soft Plastics scheme is participating in this project to help ensure we deliver the best solution for NZ. While aspects of the Soft Plastics scheme may change in the future, we will certainly still be recovering this material, as we have viable markets on shore.

The design process is planned to take two years and will consider how best to recover all plastic materials. It will take some further years to implement and have the scheme operating nationally.

Glass beverage containers are being reviewed within the proposed Container Return Scheme. Non-Beverage glass and metal packaging and paper are not currently captured within any proposed regulations.

Yes, greenhouse gas reduction will be considered during the project.