After stockpiling her soft-plastic waste for nearly a year, Maori Hill woman Ingrid Emerson was delighted to hear the news announced earlier this month.
"It’s about time and I’m very pleased", she said.
Ingrid’s daughter Helen Emerson, of Waverley, said she and her mother had been dealing with a "massive sense of guilt" around how to dispose of their soft-plastic waste and welcomed the return of an ethical and sustainable recycling option.
"Absolutely brilliant", Ms Emerson said.
"We end up with all this soft plastic and the fact that, now, that plastic can be put to good use is absolutely fantastic."
While rigid plastics (numbers 1, 2 and 5) are recycled through council initiatives, New Zealand’s soft-plastic recycling programme is run and funded by an alliance of businesses in a voluntary stewardship scheme, called the Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme (SPRS).
Participating companies in Dunedin and Mosgiel include New World, Countdown, and The Warehouse, which host the collection bins, Waste Management, which collects the plastic and runs the baling machine, and Cottonsoft, which helps transport the plastic bales north, to Future Post, where the plastic is upcycled.
Due to the complexity and voluntary nature of the programme, the Dunedin scheme had to be suspended late last year after Waste Management lost access to a baling location and resources.
The Packaging Forum chief executive Rob Langford said the organisation, which operates the national SPRS, had been working hard behind the scenes to sort out logistical issues and get the scheme running again.
‘‘What we have now is a real example of how industry can voluntarily collaborate and succeed in its responsibility to deal with the end-of-life recovery for packaging," Mr Langford said.
SPRS manager Lyn Mayes said the Dunedin programme now had an additional level of sustainability, due to the recent opening of a Future Post factory in Blenheim.
"We are now able to transport the collected soft plastic within the South Island, rather than up to Auckland. It’s exciting that we now have a brilliant, local South Island solution,’’ Ms Mayes said.
Kāti Huirapa rūnaka ki Puketeraki manager Suzanne Ellison has also been stockpiling her soft plastic in an effort to keep it out of landfill. She was relieved to hear of the programme’s reinstatement.
"It is also great for the marae and rūnaka as we work to minimise waste and further reduce what goes to landfill,’’ Ms Ellison said.
Supply chain sustainability expert Prof Diane Mollenkopf said plastics recycling was now regarded as a "moral norm" and believed consumers needed support from businesses and government to ensure they could act in alignment with their eco-values.
"We are getting very environmentally conscious consumers today, which is a great thing, and they want to do the right thing. The challenge is then is to have the right infrastructure to make that feasible,’’ Dr Mollenkopf said.
Last year, before its suspension, the SPRS recycled about 2 tonnes of soft plastics out of Dunedin each month.
Other soft-plastic recycling schemes in Dunedin include the TerraCycle programme, which accepts used pet food packaging at participating pet stores and vet centres around the city, and New Zealand Post plastic waste courier bags, which can be purchased at The Warehouse.
