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Catrin Owen / Things
Union leader Jacinda Ardern talks about waste when announcing the policy Sunday.
Apple stickers, plastic cutlery and single-use coffee cups are about to disappear if the Labor Party wins the election, but not for long.
Labor leader Jacinda Ardern announced the party’s waste policy on Sunday, which includes a $ 50 million fund to research alternatives to other single-use plastic items that have no current substitutes.
Labor previously announced its intention to ban more single-use plastics, but did not set a deadline.
Companies will have up to five years to find alternatives to common plastic items, such as drink stirrers, plastic cutlery, apple stickers, some disposable cups and lids, produce bags, and straws.
IAIN MCGREGOR / Stuff
Deputy Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage discusses plans to ban single-use plastic bags. (Video first published in December 2018)
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“By 2025 we will phase out hard-to-recycle single-use plastic items such as drink stirrers, silverware, some cups and lids, fruit and vegetable bags, straws (with an exemption for people with disabilities), cotton buds. cotton wool and stickers on fruits and vegetables, like those on individual fruits, ”Ardern said.
“Currently, all of these items have non-plastic alternatives, and some of them may be phased out before 2025. But we want to make sure that there is an adequate delivery time and that companies are not pressured to change their products in the short term.”
Fiona Goodall / Getty Images
The government previously banned single-use plastic bags.
Ardern said letters from the children about their concerns about waste and plastic had sped up the process.
“The lyrics really marked me,” he said.
Businesses are likely to welcome the time to adapt, but it may not be as popular with the environmental lobby, who have called for a more urgent change.
The policy has a significantly longer implementation time than the six months that the current government allowed for the ban on single-use plastic bags.
That was due to the complexity of the change and companies needing time to plan, a Labor spokesman said.
The change is expected to create jobs in domestic alternatives manufacturing and recycling operations.
Previously, a $ 3 million fund had been allocated to the Pact group to create a range of 100% recycled food packaging across 10 common product lines, such as meat and bakery trays, and food packaging and deli products at its plant. from Auckland.
About 30 percent of the plastic produced is single-use.
More than 8 billion tons of plastic have been produced since the 1950s and more than 80% has ended up in landfills or disposed of in the environment.
