New Zealand oat milk producer, Otis, is calling for the Government to standardise kerbside recycling across the country. Current recycling rules vary between major cities, and standardisation would provide greater clarity for New Zealanders to better their recycling habits.
Otis products are packaged in Liqui Paper board packaging (also known as LPB or Tetra Pak), which has been excluded from the Government's proposed kerbside recycling plan. LPB is currently one of the lowest carbon packaging options available and can be made completely free from fossil fuels.
Tetra can currently be upcycled in New Zealand by SaveBOARD, which turns the packaging into much-needed building materials, such as plasterboard and roofing substrates. However, excluding it from the kerbside proposal does not encourage startups like Otis who are trying to do good for the environment.
“The dairy industry uses mostly plastic packaging which 99% of plastic is made from chemicals sourced from fossil fuels - they are the real winner in this proposal and not Aotearoa’s environment or future generations. Plant milks, of which the majority use LPB, have been left out.” Said Hayley Pardoe, Otis Head of Marketing and Sustainability.
“We’ve heard that including LPB in kerbside recycling will cost too much, in particular, to modify the recovery centres where kerbside recycling goes to get sorted, and it will put extra costs on councils to have it included in their collection contracts. We know the long term cost of continuing to support the use of fossil fuels and our intensive dairy industry over lower carbon alternatives will be far greater on our whenua – and the bottom line.”
Plant-based milk consumption is currently seeing massive growth in New Zealand, and the nation's recycling plan needs to be fit for the influx of LPB packaging.
