Katherine Langford

Effective waste management and minimisation will be key to a sustainable future, and it’s good to see existing practices undergoing review both at local and national levels.

Submissions recently closed on Ōpōtiki District Council's proposed Waste Management and Minimisation Plan, which will attract Government funding for our community through to 2030.

At the same time, the Government is proposing a range of amendments to the Waste Minimisation Act 2008 (WMA) and the Litter Act 1979.   There are some positive changes on the table, including extending responsibility for waste minimisation to manufacturers, who would become more accountable for environmental impacts of their products.

In forming a solution to our waste crisis, it is critical that the job of managing waste doesn’t just fall on local councils (and by extension, ratepayers).   Product stewardship - manufacturers designing their products and packaging to minimise environmental impact - means less litter, longer lasting products, and less in landfill.

The plastic problem

Any retail business in New Zealand can tell you that the products they import from other countries come wrapped in mind boggling amounts of plastic, 95 percent of which goes straight to landfill, or ends up in our waterways and oceans, or in us.  It’s common sense to restrict the amount of waste we unwittingly import into our country, when we have no capacity to recycle it (soft plastics cannot be recycled by local councils, for example).   If producers continue to use plastic or polystyrene packaging or sell products that are designed to break prematurely, then they should pay a levy (on products entering our country) to contribute to the management of the waste they create.

It is not just soft plastics that are unrecyclable.  While we are encouraged to put hard plastics out for recycling, only clear plastics, and plastic cleaning product bottles and containers, get recycled.

What can you do?

Our Resource Recovery Centre (RRC) does a great job of recycling aluminium and tin cans, paper and cardboard, and glass, and it is now free to bring these into the centre (fun fact –cardboard does not need to be clean in order to be recycled!).

Our RRC also recycles scrap metals, wood and green waste which is mulched and made available to the public for gardens, at the back of the centre.  Timber is sorted and available for salvaging as well.  Because most timber is treated, unless it is picked up by the public, it goes to landfill.

Broken or unwanted household items

• If you are taking unwanted household items to the RRC, instead of throwing them into landfill, leave them on the shelves in what used to be the shop area (to the left as you drive into the recycling section).  It doesn’t cost anything and nearly everything that is dropped here is snapped up by members of the community, including books.
• Broken household items can be fixed at the Opotiki Repair Café, which opens on the last Saturday of every month from 10am to noon at the Arts Society Hall in King Street.   Skilled repairers can fix a wide range of items for free (any parts need to be paid for). The café fixes most items that come through the door and has saved approx. 450 kilograms of items from landfill since it opened 2 years ago.

Soft plastics

o The Repair Café also accepts clean, dry soft plastics (note that if bags have contained soil, pet biscuits or food, they must be washed and dry in order to be recyclable).  These are sent on to one of the few small private companies that have the resources to recycle soft plastics in NZ.

The café also accepts all Colgate packaging, because it can be recycled (to Colgate’s credit), including used toothbrushes, empty toothpaste tubes, dental floss containers etc.

Plastic milk bottle lids

• Plastic bottle lids go into landfill, so they should not be put out for recycling.  However, the Community Resources Centre in Whakatane, located at 40 Te Tahi St (CReW), accepts plastic bottle lids.

E-waste

•  CReW is also the only e-waste recycler in the Bay of Plenty.  E-waste includes computers, consumer electronics, monitors, TV’s, printers, photocopiers and more.  Many of these items can contain contaminants such as lead, cadmium, beryllium or brominated flame retardants which are harmful to the environment, so it is vital that these are kept out of landfill.

It doesn’t take a lot of effort to be a part of the solution, when you know how.  Even choices made in the supermarket, such as buying compostable cling wrap or bin liners, or going for products in paper packaging rather than plastic – this all helps, and sends a message to companies who until now, have shifted the responsibility for managing their waste entirely onto our shoulders.