Posted on 9-7-2004
Report
Challenges Packaging Accord
From Envision, 9 July 2004
Ed. PTV will be producing a programme about the below mentioned
`Government initiative'.
.............
A new report by Envision New Zealand, “Getting Serious
About Packaging
Waste”, criticises the Packaging Accord which is due for
signing in August
between the Government and the New Zealand Packaging Council.
The Accord
is the latest attempt by Government to address the problem of
packaging
waste but according to Envision Manager, Warren Snow, “will
simply be a
re-run of the last failed accord signed in 1996”.
Instead it says, Government should bring in Container Deposit
Legislation
(CDL) often referred to as a “Bottle Bill” where
all beverage containers
have a 5 or 10 cent deposit which is refunded when returned
to the point
of sale or to a recycling centre.
“There has been no study of the effectiveness of the first
Packaging
Accord signed in 1996, but according to the Government’s
New Zealand Waste
Strategy (2002): “the total quantity of packaging waste
has increased”.
It is hard then to understand why the Government, in spite of
this
failure, would reward the Packaging industry with a second voluntary
accord. If signed, the new Accord could result in another five
or even ten
more years of rising packaging waste.”
“Although the new Accord is based on the principles of
EPR (Extended
Producer Responsibility), there is nothing in it to compel producers
to
reduce packaging waste. Voluntary agreements have been shown
around the
world to be ineffective and highly susceptible to manipulation
by the
industries they are supposed to regulate”.
“Producers and Consumers should be responsible for the
packaging waste
they produce and use. Container Deposit Legislation, (often
referred to as
a bottle bill) will help us achieve this and will get beverage
containers
out of landfills and off our streets. “Beverage Container
Deposits worked
before in New Zealand and can work again”.
Bottle Bills have been enacted in British Columbia, South Australia
and
many other parts of the world – where beverage container
recovery rates of
80-90% are usual. They have created over 600 new jobs In South
Australia
with a population of 1.5million, and would create at least 1,000
new jobs
in New Zealand. Container deposits would practically eliminate
roadside
litter and wherever implemented are hugely popular with the
public. New
Zealand should look to these examples, rather than another industry-led
voluntary agreement.
“New Zealand should not settle for a repackaged “business
as usual”
voluntary accord, when Container Deposit Legislation is far
more effective
at reducing packaging waste and puts the responsibility for
packaging
where it belongs - back on producers and consumers”.
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