Kia ora koutou (Hello everyone), I am excited to participate in the PacWastePlus and GEF ISLANDS Study Tour to learn more from everyone about their systems and how we can support each other to improve waste and recycling outcomes across the Pacific.
Here in Aotearoa New Zealand, we are currently developing a new national waste strategy and we have recently adopted our first national emissions reduction plan (ERP). The ERP includes a 40% waste methane reduction target by 2035 (i.e. methane from landfills). This is big and means that, amongst other things, nearly all food waste must be diverted from landfill into alternative processing systems (composting and anaerobic digestion) by 2030.
We have also recently completed public consultation on our Transforming Recycling in Aotearoa proposals. The three proposals are:
1. standardizing kerbside recycling nationally – this includes a number of complimentary actions, the most notable being a standardised list of materials collected for recycling across New Zealand (making it easier to do the right thing), and kerbside food waste collections for most NZ households;
2. all businesses to separate their food waste from the landfill bin in order that it may be recycled/composted; and
3. a New Zealand Container Deposit Scheme for all one-way recyclable beverage containers (known as a Container Return Scheme in NZ; kiwi’s consume 2.57 billion single use beverage containers every year – that’s around 7 million per day, and currently, less than half are recycled and too many end up in landfill or as litter).
The things I am most looking forward to include, meeting you all and to share in your experiences; learning about where you are at on your journey, what is working well and what the issues are; and gaining insights about how we all may collectively lift our game - the need to transition to a low emission circular economy globally has never been more urgent.