Waste Minimisation (Plastic and Related Products) Regulations 2022
More plastic banned following the plastic bag ban
What Are The Waste Minimisation (Plastic and Related Products) Regulations 2022?
“This is the first group of the most problematic plastic products to be banned in a progressive phase out over the next three years,”
“Stopping the sale of these plastic products will reduce waste to landfill, improve our recycling systems and encourage reusable or environmentally responsible alternatives.”
- David Parker (Environment Minister)
Plastics that are banned from sale from 1 October 2022 are1:
Single-use plastic drink stirrers
Single-use plastic cotton buds
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pre-formed food trays and containers2
Polystyrene takeaway packaging for food and beverages
Expanded polystyrene food and beverage retail packaging (such as foam takeaway containers or some instant noodle cups)
Plastics with additives that make them fragment into micro-plastics
In mid-2023, the next group of single-use plastics to be phased out will include single use plastic plates, bowls, cutlery, single-use plastic produce bags and non-compostable produce labels. Other PVC and polystyrene food and beverage packaging will be banned from mid-2025.
There will be an exception for cases where plastic or synthetic cotton buds have specific uses where such items are required to be sterile or sterilized and alternatives do not yet exist. This includes:
As part of a medical device that is not sold by retail
In a veterinary clinic for diagnosis or sampling
In a commercial food laboratory for food sampling
In a laboratory for scientific investigation
As part of scientific or medical testing kits (eg, those in COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Tests)
What Happened With The Plastic Ban?
At the time of writing this, there’s no information. This article will get updated as information is presented. Please leave a comment if you have any information.
Opinion
There are already plastic alternatives available to drink stirrers and straws. If these options are too expensive, it doesn’t seem like the end of the world to the beverage industry if this pushes drink prices up slightly or if customers were to forgo these items. Especially given that the cost will be marginal to the consumer compared with the price of drinks.
Food trays and containers also have alternative options, though the customer doesn’t get the option to forgo such items. As there is no standard size for fast food containers, this could affect customers perception of value or (in the case of self serve) change the amount that people eat as people tend to fill containers to size.
This policy could be mildly inflationary and unfortunately came at a time when inflation is a problem. However, given that we already have microplastics being found in marine life so close to home as Wellington harbour3, this policy seems like a step in the right direction.
The only thing I don't like is the lack of information about what will be banned next; it would be better to give the private sector an opportunity to respond to changes before they happen.
In summary, as far as I can tell this policy has been a success.
Useful links:
The new regulations: https://legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2022/0069/13.0/LMS654254.html
More detailed information: https://environment.govt.nz/publications/plastic-products-banned-from-october-2022/
This ban is limited to PVC trays used for meat (and alternative meat products), produce and baked goods. If the PVC plastic is formed, filled with food and then mechanically sealed on the same line, it is not in the scope of this ban.