So, you’ve read the petition and are after more specifics - welcome, welcome.

Our high level request

That the House of Representatives call on the Government to ban single-use disposable food and drink serviceware containing plastic (including degradable, biodegradable, or compostable plastic) and mandate co-designed, accessible, and reusable alternatives instead (using powers under the Waste Minimisation Act 2008).

The Nitty Gritty

We’re asking the Government To do two, interconnected things

(1)   Takeaway Throwaways (i.e. get rid of the problem)

Use s 23(1)(b) of the Waste Minimisation Act 2008 to introduce a mandatory phase-out of single-use disposable food and drink serviceware containing plastic, including degradable, biodegradable, and compostable plastic. This could include, but is not limited to, cups and lids, food containers, cutlery, and single-serve sauce and condiment sachets and pottles, including soy fish, sugar and ketchup sachets, and jam/spread pottles.

(2)   Make Reuse Great Again (i.e. imagine, design, build, and fund the solution)

Use s 23(1)(c), (d) and (e) of the Waste Minimisation Act 2008 to mandate and incentivise reusable alternatives to single-use disposable food and drink serviceware. Mandate reuse systems by requiring a ‘takeback for reuse’ policy for reusable serviceware and prescribing that reusable alternatives and the systems to deliver them are accessible, following co-design with a wide range of stakeholders. Takeback for reuse policy can be reinforced by a mandated deposit system to ensure efficient returns, and compulsory fees on single-use disposable serviceware products that aren’t banned (i.e. those not containing plastic) to disincentivise their use.

Clear as mud? Read more about how s 23 of the Waste Minimisaton Act can be used to achieve these goals here.

We believe the Government has a role not only in taking away throwaways, but in boosting the availability and uptake of necessary reusable alternatives. Combining these two actions has the greatest potential to normalise reuse and move our nation closer to a circular economy and a zero waste society.

We’re asking the government to use powers they already have

We don’t need the Government to pass any new laws through Parliament. We’re asking them to use powers they already have under existing legislation (the Waste Minimisation Act 2008) to make policy that was already foreseen when this legislation was passed over a decade ago. You can read more about s 23 of the Waste Minimisation Act here - we believe it’s important the public is aware that the Government does have the power to act in meaningful ways to curb our waste issues.

We’re asking the Government to be visionary and ambitious

Government regulation isn’t limited to banning things or taking things away. Governments can be proactive agents of change, using their unique powers to envision, coordinate, speed-up, and scale-up alternative futures that individuals, business, or organisations can’t do alone. The Waste Minimisation Act gives our Government pretty amazing powers to transform our economy to be less wasteful. However, these powers remain largely untapped.

We acknowledge the Government’s latest proposals to phase-out takeaway cups and containers made of PVC and polystyrene and to develop regulated product stewardship schemes for certain products, including single-use plastic packaging of consumer goods, which would include food and drink serviceware.

However, we believe that mandatory phase-outs of single-use disposable plastics must be implemented far more radically, urgently, and strategically. Banning individual items or polymer types here and there every few years isn’t going to get us where we need to be, fast enough. Furthermore, it’s not sufficient just to take things away; the Government must actively build the alternatives to ensure we get durable, efficient systems that last the distance.

The time to be bold is now. Public awareness about waste is mounting, landfills around some of our biggest cities are filling up, China no longer wants our plastic recycling and nor do South East Asian countries. The 2019 Colmar Brunton Better Futures Report found that New Zealanders rate the build up of plastic in the environment as the top concern facing the country. We can’t recycle our way out of this crisis and we can’t replace plastic disposables with disposables made of other materials that also carry their own impact. This is the Government’s opportunity to do something different, and to lead the world in building a circular, reuse economy. But it requires vision and ambition.

We are asking the Government to take a leadership position

Creating a circular economy that runs on efficient and scaleable reuse systems that are functional and durable requires Government mandate, coordination, and oversight. While reusable alternative products to disposable serviceware exist already, we need Government policy to bring these to scale on a systems level (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, pp.20-21; Miller, Bolger, Copello, 2019). For example:

• to guarantee universal participation, reuse schemes must be mandatory;

• to ensure high return rates of loaned reusables, implementing, and administering a deposit/refund scheme will be required;

• to ensure convenient and functional processes for drop-off/take-back, storage, reverse logistics, and cleaning, infrastructure must be established;

• to maximise system efficiency, reusable products may need to be standardised; and

• for the system to work for everyone, there must be a co-design process where representatives from across society get a seat at the table.

Apart from the need for Government leadership to oversee this process and back it up with policy and logistical support, we’re also expecting there’ll be some businesses and individuals who resist this type of systems-level change. We need Government to stick their neck out, show leadership, and carve the path forward.

We’re asking the Government to Ensure the reuse future is inclusive and accessible

A low-waste future cannot be sustainable unless it is accessible, which includes affording equal access to people of all ages, to people with disabilities, and ensuring affordability. Read more about our approach to inclusion and accessibility here. To this end, we’re calling on the Government to prescribe in any s 23(1)(c) regulation that reuse systems be accessible. In addition, we recommend the Government mandate a design process for such reuse systems (similar to the current container return scheme working group), which includes the active (and fully resourced) participation of the disabled community, the elderly, representatives for young children, and from the health and social services sectors, among other stakeholders. This design process must also consider any financial implications of the transition towards reusables and ensure that these costs are equally distributed across the population. This may require the use of economic incentives for businesses and/or targeted Government funding.

We’re asking the Government to get behind the individuals, organisations, and businesses on the frontlines of change

Many individuals, businesses, and communities in Aotearoa New Zealand are already voluntarily refusing throwaway food and drink serviceware by embracing reusables and advocating that others do too. The time, energy and resources that individuals, community groups and NGOs currently pour into encouraging people to choose reusables over disposables is time, energy, and resources that could be put elsewhere. Meanwhile, businesses and cafes that choose to stick their neck out and get rid of throwaways, fear a competitive disadvantage against those that don’t.

We need the Government to step in to support the scale-up and mainstream of reuse by removing throwaway options and replacing them with mandatory, scaleable, and accessible alternative reuse systems. Such policies would have a dramatic impact on single-use disposable waste, level the playing field for business, while removing the opportunity-costs faced by individuals, community groups, and NGOs who could shift their focus to other worthwhile projects.

We’re asking the Government to stay at the forefront of international waste policy

Numerous overseas jurisdictions are starting to phase-out and/or regulate different types of single-use disposable food and drink serviceware. For example, the EU, ACT, South Australia, Vanuatu, England, Hawaii, and Berkeley (to name a handful - see also, UNEP, Single-Use Plastics: A Roadmap for Sustainability, 2018 and Beau Baconguis, Stemming the Plastic Flood: Increasing Restrictions and prohibitions on single-use plastics (SUPs) worldwide. A Break Free From Plastic Movement report). We are lagging behind in Aotearoa New Zealand, even though we have the legislative power to implement similar phase-outs. It’s time to catch up.

The world is also beginning to recognise that it’s not enough just to ban problematic waste items; we must imagine, build, and fund the alternative too. Policies to mandate and incentivise reuse are springing up overseas. We encourage the Government to consider the policy and infrastructural resources produced by UPSTREAM, the Plastic Pollution Coalition (on their Global Legislative Toolkit), Rethink Disposable, Rethink Plastic Alliance and the #BreakFreeFromPlastic Movement, and Ellen Macarthur Foundation.

At the same time, we call on the Government to recognise the wide scope of regulatory possibility offered under our own WMA to transplant and build upon these overseas initiatives right here in Aotearoa New Zealand. We have the potential to transform how we serve food and drink ‘on the go’ and cast Aotearoa New Zealand as a bold, global leader committed to a healthier, greener, more caring, and more connected country. By taking decisive, proactive, and responsible action, we can show our determination to act as kaitiaki not only for Aotearoa New Zealand, but for the intimately connected global environment we all depend upon. In the process, we can influence other nations too.

We’re Asking the Government to get started now, but we’re not expecting everything to happen overnight

Takeaway Throwaways is seeking a systems-level shift to how we serve food and drink ‘on the go’. Currently, throwaways are available virtually everywhere, anytime, free of charge, and enabled by nationwide, coordinated rubbish bin infrastructure. We envision a situation where those throwaways disappear, to be replaced by a culture of BYO combined with coordinated reuse systems that rely on a totally different set of infrastructure that doesn’t currently exist.

Making this vision a reality is no pipe dream, but it will take time, particularly to do it well. We’re not expecting the Government to do it overnight. However, we are asking the Government to prioritise getting started urgently. Every year we delay means another lost year of planning, preparing, and implementing. We need the Government to sit down and draw up a plan, with a clear timeframe and strategy, and then to push play.

The long game is to design some highly functional, efficient, and standardised reuse systems, and establish the infrastructure to go with it. While this is happening though, the Government can use s 23 of the Waste Minimisation Act to implement some temporary measures to make disposables less attractive and incentivise reuse in the short-term. For example, attaching a compulsory fee to all disposable serviceware before mandatory phase-outs kick in, and requiring that ‘have here’/ ‘dine-in’ customers can be served with reusables only (see the Berkeley approach to staged phase-ins). Once reuse schemes are up and running, these measures will no longer be necessary and the Government can shift to mandatory phase-outs. If this takes several years, fine, but what we don’t want is to wait several years just for the Government to push play on this process.