The food and grocery industry welcomes the announcement today by the Government about changes to recycling and disposal of waste.
New Zealand Food and Grocery Council (FGC) Chief Executive Raewyn Bleakley stated the announcement is a big step toward a more sustainable economy.
“We will be very interested in the detail and understanding of the latest data on littering and waste to see how the various schemes integrate and are sequenced sensibly. We look forward to working with the Government on these initiatives,” said Bleakley.
Bleakley elaborated that the FGC supported the changes, with specificity to the new strategy addressing reducing waste to landfills, maximising resources, and standardising household kerbside recycling.
However, the Chief Executive stated the enterprise is waiting to see if its concerns regarding proposals that suggest withholding collection lids and tops from cans, tubs, and smaller bottle tops have been heard and acknowledged. Such proposals were counter-intuitive, according to Bleakley, as consumers are looking for 100 percent recyclable materials.
The FGC also welcomes new legislation regarding labelling, being at the forefront of implementing the Australasian Recycling Label in New Zealand.
“A significant part of that work involves the FGC and The Packaging Forum leading the co-design of the Plastic Packaging Product Stewardship Scheme (PPPS), which will make recommendations to the Government on requirements for producers, brand owners, importers, retailers, and consumers to take responsibility for collecting and dealing with plastic packaging.”
Bleakley shared that scheme wouldn’t be finalised until June of next year (2024). Therefore, the enterprise had lingering concerns surrounding decision-making on kerbside collections as it would be challenging to transition back for consumers following these changes.
“FGC’s Sustainability Committee has been working for the past few years on other initiatives to promote recycling and the use of recycled packaging and to eliminate plastics where possible.
FGC, part of the global leadership group on product stewardship, is directly involved in the Australian Food and Grocery Council’s research to design a soft plastic product stewardship scheme in Australia. Bleakley described the Sustainability Committee’s study has led to groundbreaking changes in recycling and reusability.
