Govt. gives up leadership on waste

The Government’s newly released Waste Strategy fails to show any meaningful leadership on waste, the Green Party said today.

“This is not a waste reduction strategy at all. It’s a content-free, feel-good document that does nothing to advance solutions to our growing waste problem,” said Green Party waste spokesperson David Clendon.

“The new Waste Strategy is a big step backwards in the effort to reduce the 3.2 million tonnes of waste that ends up in our landfills each year.

“The Strategy doesn’t set any meaningful waste reduction targets. It sets no priorities for local authorities, nor will it create consistency or enable them to work together in a coordinated way. And it is silent on mandatory product stewardship schemes for New Zealand’s most problematic waste streams.

“This uncoordinated, unregulated response to our growing waste mountain is not a smart way to run a modern, cleantech economy.”

“Once again, John Key’s Government is damaging our clean green image by neglecting our environment.”

Without mandatory product stewardship schemes applied to the country’s most toxic and polluting waste streams, thousands of tonnes of e-waste, tyres, motor vehicles, batteries, and fluorescent light bulbs will continue to go to landfill each year.

“With a very few exceptions, voluntary waste stewardship isn’t working, so why would the Minister continue to give industry free rein to sort out our waste problem?

“In reality, this will mean that there will now only be action on the waste that industry deems affordable and easy to tackle,” said Mr Clendon.

Mr Clendon said that the lack of leadership from central government on waste will mean each and every local authority will have to commission and replicate work on waste planning and minimisation. This will be costly to the economy, if it goes ahead at all.

“The lack of meaningful regulation and waste reduction targets will leave councils with little incentive to act,” said Mr Clendon.


The New Zealand Waste Strategy:
http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/waste/waste-strategy/index.html