After years of pressure from the environmental movement, the Labour Government under Jacinda Ardern finally agreed to introduce a beverage Container Return Scheme to help eliminate single-use plastic waste. The scheme would have had enormous benefits for hapū, iwi and community groups, and the environment. It would have meant higher recycling rates, more reuse and refill opportunities, less plastic pollution and less waste to landfill. It would have created green jobs within our local communities. The plan has huge public support despite years of sustained and targeted lobbying from beverage and packaging producers. But on 13 March 2023, Prime Minister Hipkins inexplicably announced that he would defer the plan to an undetermined date. The PM has for no reason dumped a great plan to deal with plastic pollution. All the work on implementing a comprehensive Container Return Scheme has already been done, and with the flick of a switch, our Prime Minister could be back on the right track. Sign on now to call for the scheme to be restored! 🐬 Bottle refund scheme “breakthrough for plastic crisis” https://www.greenpeace.org/aotearoa/press-release/bottle-refund-scheme-breakthrough-for-plastic-crisis/ 🐬 Scrapping Container Return Scheme a grave error https://www.greenpeace.org/aotearoa/press-release/scrapping-container-return-scheme-a-grave-error/

★ 1 July 2022 ★ Yesterday we delivered your name with our petition to Ban the Bottle. Over 100,000 of us - 100,017 to be exact - have called on the Government, and our representatives in Parliament, to take real action to eliminate plastic pollution. On Parliament steps we handed over our powerful call to Green MP Eugenie Sage who will speak up for it in Parliament. Birdie, our large sculpture of a toroa, represented for us the cost to wildlife and Papatūānuku from the non-stop production of plastic pollution by companies like Coca-Cola. https://www.greenpeace.org/aotearoa/press-release/petition-ban-single-use-plastic-bottles/ https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/07/01/100k-petition-to-ban-plastic-bottles-delivered-with-huge-toroa/ ★ Every year it’s estimated we toss away more than a billion plastic bottles here in New Zealand. This plastic ends up clogging our landfills, getting shipped offshore and incinerated in places like Malaysia, where it harms human health, or it winds up on our coast, causing harm to wildlife like the toroa (albatross) and breaking down into tiny toxic pieces which end up in our food. We all know the time has come for visionary action on plastic - let’s ban throwaway plastic bottles* and mandate for reusable alternatives. We’re calling on New Zealand’s government to ban single-use plastic bottles. Will you join us? *The scope of this ban should include all ‘ready-to-drink’, single-use plastic beverage containers in the volume range of 0.1 litres to 3 litres (e.g. mineral water, soft drinks, sport drinks, juices, and milks). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOwC4luBzGo&t=1s

After years of campaigning from community groups, waste minimisation experts and with support from local government and the Environment Select Committee, the Kiwi Bottle Drive and allied organisations Zero Waste Network, Para Kore, Greenpeace, the Rubbish Trip and the New Zealand Product Stewardship Council are delighted with the government’s proposal to finally implement a Container Return Scheme in Aotearoa New Zealand! The proposal currently out for public consultation includes most of the key points we have been advocating for, such as a 20c deposit, the inclusion of all materials, and convenient and accessible collection points. There is room for improvement in a few areas: to keep things simple and fair, milk and refillables should be included in the scheme and more power must be given to community and social enterprises, with particular regard for Māori-led initiatives, rather than handing the Container Return Scheme to industry to lead. We have the chance now to make a few tweaks and develop the best Container Return Scheme for Aotearoa: a simple, comprehensive Tiriti-led scheme that will increase the circularity of beverage containers, ensure producer responsibility and deliver maximum benefits to the community. Add your voice to the group submission now! *If you prefer, you can make a submission directly through the government website, where you can also read more about the proposals: https://environment.govt.nz/what-government-is-doing/areas-of-work/waste/container-return-scheme-reducing-waste-landfill/

Samoa and 29 other countries have banned them...now it's time for our redesigned city Otautahi-Christchurch to lead the way in NZ. New Zealanders send an estimated one BILLION plastic bags to landfill annually. Scientists estimate it takes 1000 years (yes, you read that right) for plastic bags to degrade and during that process toxins are leached and particles can get into the food chain.

Single-use disposable plastic bags are not recycled and although often reused, they pollute and poison the marine and land environment and negatively impact human and animal health. The ingestion of plastic in the Hauraki Gulf and beyond seriously threatens turtles, whales, sea birds and myriad other creatures. Plastic bags take several hundred years to break down leaving microscopic pieces of highly toxic plastic in the environment as they fissure. Toxicity from plastic components has been scientifically linked to metabolic disorders and threats to fertility in humans and sea creatures. Stopping the use of single-use disposable plastic bags is a relatively easy way we can make a positive difference.

Are you frustrated that products aren’t made to last and when they break, they are not repairable? You are not alone! A 2020/2021 Consumer NZ survey of 5000 New Zealanders found that 76% of participants would rather get products repaired than throw them out and buy a new one By reducing product quality, and making products hard to repair, companies can sell stuff more cheaply. This fuels trends like ‘fast fashion, ‘fast furniture’ and ‘fast electronics’. As a result, our landfills are filling up, our climate is heating up, and every day we are wasting money replacing broken items that should be lasting far longer. Recycling alone isn’t enough to reduce the mountain of discarded stuff that ends up clogging our landfills. It doesn’t have to be this way! In the past, stuff was built to last, and there were skilled people throughout Aotearoa New Zealand who could repair your appliances, computer or furniture for a fraction of the cost of replacing them. Join us in calling on the Minister for the Environment to consider the following measures to make it easier and cheaper for people to get items repaired in Aotearoa New Zealand, and to turn the tide on the waste we create: 1. Pass laws that require products to last longer and be easier to repair Aotearoa New Zealand is behind many countries in the world when it comes to protecting the Right-to-Repair in law. We call on the Government to look to the best overseas examples of Right-to-Repair laws and pass our own laws in a short space of time, to ensure that products put on the market in New Zealand meet basic standards of durability and repairability. Laws need to ensure that spare parts are made available, and that independent repairers have access to the tools and information they need to fix broken items. Achieving good outcomes for repair requires changes to education, to consumer law, copyright law and waste minimisation law. We ask that the Government also promote circular product design and repair across the education sector, to ensure students are learning skills and mindsets to create sustainable technologies. 2. Take action to make repair services accessible and affordable for everyone We call on both central and local government to ensure equitable access and availability of repair services in communities across Aotearoa. In particular, actively supporting the growth of both for-profit and community-based repair services, and introducing reliable funding mechanisms for these businesses and organisations. Good tools for this job could include: targeted waste levy funding, subsidies for repair, providing free or low-cost physical spaces in cities and towns for repair hubs, and making sure that product stewardship schemes cover the costs of repair, as well as recycling. 3. Ensure consumers have access to information on product repairability and durability When purchasing products in Aotearoa, it can be difficult to tell whether a product is good quality or easily repairable, due to a lack of information. We call on the Government to support Consumer NZ in developing a labelling or certification scheme to be displayed on key products, such as electronics, furniture and textiles, so consumers know how long a particular product is expected to last. We would like to see Aotearoa adopt a ‘repairability index” (similar to the French one) so that people can see how easy it is to get an item repaired before they buy it. 4. Require producers to offer spare parts and repair services Under the Consumer Guarantees Act manufacturers need to provide spare parts and access to repair services for their products. However, if they let the consumer know at the point of sale that there are no spare parts or repair services then they can opt out of this provision. We urge you to amend the Consumer Guarantees Act so that no manufacturer can opt out of this. It's time to reclaim our right to buy durable products that are easy to repair. We want Government to hold producers and retailers responsible for the whole life-cycle costs of the products they put into the market.

While the Horowhenua District Council (HDC) has recently closed the landfill for six months to enable community consultation and address long-standing compliance issues, our campaign is far from over. The Council still has resource consent to operate on the site until 2037. While the landfill is temporarily closed our waste is being sent to Bonny Glen – a compliant landfill near Marton. We want to keep it that way! You can help by signing our petition to protect the Hōkio environment from harmful waste leaching from the Levin landfill. Your support will help us close this non-compliant landfill and repatriate the site which has been degrading the Hōkio environment for decades; leaching into groundwater, polluting the Hōkio stream, and the ocean. In a time of climate change - when communities are cleaning up rivers, lakes, waterways and toxic sites all over Aotearoa – the Hōkio environment deserves a reprieve. We’re Over It because we strongly support the concerns of local Māori who have been ignored and disrespected over the on-going abuse of their rohe for years. We’re Over It - because the Hōkio community is frequently subject to foul odours - with residents’ complaints to the Horizons Regional Council (HRC) not being taken seriously. We’re Over It because the Horizons Regional Council is not being ‘called out’ over its shoddy environmental monitoring of the landfill and the Horowhenua catchment. We’re Over It because the landfill is consistently in breach of a number of ‘resource consents’ to operate in an environmentally responsible manner. We’re Over It because the District Council is not transparent with ratepayers on how the landfill is run. Contrary to popular myth, this facility is running up debt, not making money for the district. Why should you care? Well, if you’re a Kāpiti or Horowhenua resident - it’s your rubbish so you need to know where it’s going and that it’s not damaging the environment. Even if it’s not your rubbish, you should be concerned that in the 21st century any New Zealand community is operating a landfill like this, on a flood plain in coastal sand dune country.

After years of campaigning from community groups, waste minimisation experts and councils and with the backing of the Environment Select Committee, we are the closest we have ever been to having a Container Return Scheme (CRS) implemented in NZ! This scheme will have enormous benefits for our community, land and sea; higher recycling rates, more reuse, decrease in litter and green jobs for local people. But we need it to be done right. Right now, vested industry groups are trying to block a comprehensive CRS in New Zealand and have their products (such as glass) excluded. Read more about our campaign on the Kiwi Bottle Drive website and check out the longer version of our open letter cosigned with other zero waste groups and like-minded organisations.

Aotearoa New Zealand has a waste problem that we can’t recycle our way out of. Single-use disposable serviceware belongs to the outdated ‘take-make-dispose’ linear economy, which accelerates our global and local waste crisis, fills up our landfills to produce methane and toxic leachate, and increases litter pollution. Extracting natural resources to make endless streams of single-use items is also unsustainable in the face of resource depletion and climate change, which threaten the planet’s mauri (life-force) and our mauri as descendants of the planet. We need visionary personal, business and policy solutions that prevent and reduce waste in the first place, and that replace throwaways with non-toxic reusable alternatives that work for all people. These upstream solutions will create less waste and fewer greenhouse gas emissions than recycling, composting or landfilling. Transitioning to a circular economy won’t be easy; it makes sense to start with low-hanging fruit. While some single-use items remain unavoidable for some applications (such as certain medical contexts, accessibility needs or civil emergencies), most single-use disposable serviceware for food and drink is relatively easy to prevent if we choose to reuse. Many individuals, businesses and communities in Aotearoa New Zealand are already embracing reusables. We can take this further and mainstream reuse with Government policy that removes throwaway options and replaces them with scaleable and accessible reusable alternatives. We recognise that single-use disposable serviceware often has accessibility-friendly characteristics that enable the independence of people with access needs, including the disabled community, the elderly and young children. Reusable alternatives must balance environmental outcomes with the need to maintain and promote accessibility. Government and business must work meaningfully alongside people with access needs to design products and reuse systems that incorporate universal design principles to function well for everyone. For more information, see the Takeaway Throwaways campaign website. *The time to be bold is now. Ko tēnei te wā.* Until recently, phasing-out throwaway food and drink packaging and serviceware would have seemed radical. However, times are changing. New Zealanders want more action on waste. Banning plastic shopping bags was a first step. New proposals to phase-out PVC and polystyrene takeaway cups and containers prove the Government’s willingness to take action on waste. The time has come to be more ambitious: we must tackle the root of the problem, which is the single-use mindset, not the particular materials involved. The Government has a role not only in taking away a wider range of throwaways, but in boosting the availability and uptake of accessible reusables. When combined, these two actions have the power to mainstream reuse. Ultimately, we are all responsible as kaitiaki for Aotearoa New Zealand and the global environment we depend upon. With integrity, determination, and a collaborative and inclusive spirit we can transform how we serve food and drink ‘on the go’, move our country towards true circular, zero waste solutions, and cast ourselves as a bold, global leader committed to a healthier, greener, more caring and connected world. Follow the Takeaway Throwaways campaign and get involved: http://www.takeawaythrowaways.nz/ http://www.instagram.com/takeawaythrowaways http://www.facebook.com/takeawaythrowaways