Degradable Plastics

Degradable plastics are likely to shape the future of the plastics industry internationally.  In anticipation of the increasing interest in degradable plastics, Plastics NZ is running a series of workshops. We have held two workshops so far.

Workshop One - 8 December 2005

The first workshop on 8 December had more than 60 people attend from a range of companies and organisations, including: central and local government, researchers, plastic raw material suppliers / sales representatives, plastics manufacturers, brand owners, retailers, recyclers, industrial composters, and non-government organisations.

During the workshop, 7 key speakers (from various stages around the product life cycle) presented their views on degradable plastics. View presentations

After the presentations from each of the speakers, there was a group discussion and brainstorming session on some of the underlying issues. These key issues included: education, standards, product/material standardisation, identification, collection/recycling infrastructure, and most importantly, communication between and among the many stakeholders.

Workshop Two - 29 March 2006

The second workshop was held to continue discussions on Degradable Plastics issues, and to start proposing solutions. However, before launching into the group discussions, we had a very important and informative presentation from Warwick Hall, Manager of Degradable Polymers at Plastral, Australia.

Warwick spoke on 'Australian Standards and Labelling', and the 'Code of Practice' for Degradable Plastics. His presentation covered: definitions of degradable polymer types, some typically used labelling claims, the international compostability network, and how Australia has been developing the Draft DR05402 Standard (the most likely standard for NZ to follow). He also spoke on behalf of PACIA (the Plastics and Chemicals Industry Association), which has been developing the Code of Practice - a voluntary instrument which has the backing of the federal government and the regulators. The Code of Practice is due to be completed in June 2006.

Click here to view Warwick's presentation.

During the second half, the workshop broke into 6 smaller working groups to discuss 6 degradable plastic topics. Each group presented some of the key issues surrounding these topics, and possible solutions to overcome them. The discussion topics were: Public Education; Standards/Labelling/Identification; Infrastructure (Collecting/Sorting/Separation/Handling/Reprocessing); Communication between Stakeholders (Parties involved throughout the Product Lifecycle); Product Stewardship (taking responsibility for the product during its lifecycle) and Sustainability (Economic/Environmental/Social); and Imported Degradable Plastic Products and Raw Material - (Who's responsible? Brand Owners? Retailers? Importers?).

Click here to view the summary of group discussions.

Massive thanks to Warwick Hall for flying over to NZ from Australia to present at this workshop. A special thanks also to the Packaging Council of NZ for their contribution towards morning tea; and to the facilitators of each working group.