New Zealand needs some kind of economic levy to help the country come to grips with its solid waste mountain – but the only legislative cab off the rank currently comes with significant risks to business.
These flaws could see the Green Party’s private member’s bill on Waste Minimisation voted down at its third reading unless the Parliamentary select committee (to which it was quietly slipped on June 14) makes some amendments.
The concept of the bill is good and the use of solid waste levies has proved successful overseas. The funds thus raised can be ploughed back into public and private efforts to reduce, recycle and reuse the 3.2 million tonnes that go into this country’s 93 landfills every year.
However, this bill is unlikely to get majority support from MPs if it keeps provisions to:
• extend the levy to another 3.2 million tonnes of waste going to cleanfills (which include waste such as concrete, rubble, plasterboard, wood, steel, brick and glass) each year;
• require every one of our 366,000 businesses nationwide to produce waste minimisation plan;
• ban sales of all products which do not produce product stewardship programme when required. (Product stewardship involves producers taking responsibility throughout the lifecycle of their products, including disposal.)
The product stewardship provisions may surprise brand owners, defined as “a person or organisation who manufactures or imports into New Zealand product intended for sale or other distribution to another person or organisation in New Zealand, or for re-export”. The bill allows the Government to order compulsory stewardship programmes for products recommended by the director of new national Waste Minimisation Authority.
Brand owners are compelled to produce plans, establish collection facilities for products at the end of their lives, keep them open for 12 hours day, seven days week, recycle or reuse minimum of 75 percent of the product collected; advertise collection services, and offer incentives for people to bring back used products.
Offences attract fines of up to $100,000 and six month prison terms, for each day the offence is continued.
There will be major issues if products like cars, for example, are included. For that, and other industries, should brand owner be made responsible for product which may have been parallel imported and sold by another?
Will every daily newspaper publisher have to pick up every newspaper when readers discard them?
The law, as proposed, could produce perverse outcomes, when the overall intention – to help the country along zero-waste journey, delivering huge benefits – is one that earns business support.
Unless the bill’s wheels are tightened in the select committee workshop, they’ll fall off under welter of business and MP criticism when the bill hits the Parliamentary voting road.
Significant cooperative work is being done in some sectors on recycling and product stewardship and the Business Council prefers incentives and win-win solutions rather than big stick approach.
Business will be wise to ensure there is some action to tackle waste. Our nationwide focus groups and UMR polling research shows waste is the third highest environmental concern of New Zealanders. Some 86 percent expect businesses to act in sustainable ways.
Many are deeply cynical over how waste recycling is currently managed. They see contractors throwing some items out of their recycling bins onto the kerb and know something is very wrong. Let’s hope the Greens now help get the legislative fix right.
Peter Neilson is chief executive of the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development. www.nzbcsd.org.nz
