Product Stewardship

The Waste Minimisation Act 20081 provides a regulatory framework for the establishment of voluntary product stewardship schemes. Product stewardship moves responsibility for waste to those involved in the production and supply of the product and indirectly to the consumer by ensuring the costs of its disposal are reflected in the purchase price. It involves those who know the most about the product – the businesses who make and sell it – in designing the solution.

Although the Act is focused on waste minimisation, the benefits of product stewardship are not limited to waste minimisation but might include :

  • Reducing the waste produced during manufacture;
  • Reducing the carbon footprint of a product; and
  • Harmonising best practice labeling for consumer information.


Plastics New Zealand supports the principle of industry-led, voluntary product stewardship and accepts that all parties involved in a product’s life cycle need to share the responsibility for the environmental impact of the product.

As an organisation we have been actively promoting product stewardship for several years:-

  • Launched our Sustainability Initiative in 2003
  • Supported the NZ Packaging Accord 2004 promoting initiatives to redesign products and increase plastics recycling resulting in a 24% plastic recycling rate which exceeded the target of 23% and a stellar 99% recycling rate for post industrial plastic waste.2
  • Our Best Practice Programme [LINK to BPe page], which has been running for more than 7 years, is a great example of our companies leading the way by taking a lifecycle approach to product stewardship.
  • The production and promotion of our Design for the Environment Guidelines [LINK to Design for Environment page] with an emphasis on initial design and recyclability
  • Working closely with the recycling and composting industry and local government to ensure our products can be recycled or composted in New Zealand
  • Actively working with brand owners, recyclers, and local government to increase the post industrial and post consumer plastic that is recovered in New Zealand
  • Product stewardship and design for the environment are integrated into our training in the Diploma in Design and Specification of Plastics and the NZ Qualifications Authority Unit Standards for Plastics.
  • Working with all stakeholders on the stewardship of degradable plastics in New Zealand

1 The Waste Minimization Act 2008
2 http://www.packagingaccord.org.nz/


Industry Leadership

There are some excellent examples of the plastics industry taking the lead in developing voluntary product stewardship approaches for their products. These include:


REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE

Example: Tip Top Ice Cream Containers
Tip Top ice cream containers were made from HDPE until about 1999. PP has a lower melt point than HDPE so can be moulded faster. This results in a more efficient manufacturing process, energy savings and lower costs of production. PP is also harder and stiffer than HDPE and therefore requires less material to deliver the same structural properties. As a result, PP allows for a lighter weight product to be developed.

Changing the polymer used for the ice cream tubs r the amount of polymer could be reduced. The weight of the Tip Top ice cream tub fell from 55 g in HDPE to 42 g in PP. This represents a 24% material reduction. With 15 million containers being produced by Tip Top every year, a 13g reduction per container represents 195,000 kg, or 195 tonnes, of reduced material use per year. This equates to taking over 4.5 million tubs out of the waste stream.


REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE

Plastic Pipe Recycling: Recovery of rigid PVC products through plumbing outlets

Recovery of rigid PVC pipes through plumbing outlets to be recycled and reused locally. Iplex, Marley and RX Plastics, all collect and recycle PVC pipe scrap. PVC is a thermoplastic that is easily melted and reformed into new products. Comparisons of the embodied energy and carbon emissions from New Zealand’s PVC and Polyethylene (PE) pipe against other alternative materials demonstrate that PVC is a sustainable choice.

Further details at http://www.plastics.org.nz/pipa/environmental.asp
 

REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE

Agpac – recycling farm plastics
Agpac has developed practical product stewardship solutions to recycle plastic baleage wrap which is used as a crop protection material on farms as well as silage pit covers, feed and fertiliser bags, plastic packaging and shrink wrap.

More details can be found on Agpac’s website: http://agpac.co.nz/products.php?cid=14&type=P

Agrecovery – a voluntary product stewardship programme for on-farm plastics and unwanted chemicals.

The Agrecovery Foundation holds contracts with an increasing number of brand owners from the following industries: crop protection, animal health, biological protection, dairy hygiene, silage wrap and crop protection net.  As at February 2012 the number of brand owners contracted to the programme was 59.

Agrecovery currently provides five nationwide programmes:
• Containers – recycling of plastic agrichemical and animal health containers from 1-60 litres
• Drums – recovery of plastic and steel drums from 61-1000 litres
• Chemicals – disposal of unwanted and expired chemicals
• Wrap – recycling of silage wrap, pit covers and some feed bags
• Net – recycling of crop protection net

The Agrecovery product stewardship model is consistent with international best practice and is affiliated to Crop Life International Container Management Group. 

The programme’s operational elements are accredited to the international environmental standard ISO 14001 and Agrecovery's container and chemicals programmes are accredited by the Minister for the Environment as Product Stewardship Programmes under the Waste Minimisation Act 2008.

Farmers and growers benefit from participation and compliance records to assist with their national and international market access requirements

More details at: http://www.agrecovery.co.nz/

Turning plastic milk bottles into agricultural products is good for the environment, the economy and the community3

Two commercial wash plants processing HDPE have opened in Canterbury.

The Mastagard plant processes a wide variety of post consumer and post industrial HDPE material including agricultural wrap.

The Comspec plant provides a local solution for South Island councils from Nelson to Invercargill.
Using recycled HDPE bottles rather than virgin plastic saves on average one tonne of Carbon Dioxide for every tonne of plastic recycled into new products such as drainage pipes, wheelie bins and industrial packaging.
 

3 http://www.sift.net.nz/Blog/2009/11/another-new-plastics-recycling-plant-opens-in-christchurch/