The study concludes that the net impact of introducing a mandatory container deposit system in New Zealand would cost up to $121 million per annum.
If a product take-back scheme were applied to all consumer product packaging as allowed for in the Green’s Waste Minimisation (Solids) Bill, the net cost to the country would be of a similar magnitude.
Paul Curtis, executive director of the Packaging Council says that they commissioned the study understanding that New Zealanders like the idea of getting money back on beverage containers they have bought and returned.
However, he says that while the campaign for Container Deposit Legislation (CDL) appeals to the emotional argument for introducing legislation into New Zealand, all the evidence from studies overseas points to the huge costs of such a system particularly when it sits alongside an already efficient kerbside recycling system.
“Those countries which have introduced CDL have primarily introduced it as a litter management solution or have introduced it prior to a kerbside system when 95 per cent of New Zealanders have access to recycling facilities, introducing container deposit legislation would make no sense as it would compete with our existing collection systems for recyclables.
“We need to ask ourselves whether it is worth spending millions of dollars on addressing a single and relatively small part of the waste stream. Packaging waste represents 12 per cent of all waste to landfill and beverage containers a smaller proportion still.
“Industry is absolutely committed to achieving its recycling targets agreed under the Packaging Accord – and at a rate of 52 per cent more packaging is now recycled than sent to landfill. However if we are seriously considering spending this sort of money wouldn’t it make more sense to focus on the waste making up the other 88 per cent of the landfill?”
