Government waste work programme
What we are doing to reduce waste across Aotearoa New Zealand.
Reducing waste will help with our transition from a linear economy with its take, make, dispose approach to a low-emissions circular economy.
On this page
A low-emissions ciricular economy involves:
- keeping resources in use for as long as possible
- extracting the maximum value from them while in use
- then recovering and regenerating them.
To reduce the amount of waste Aotearoa New Zealand produces, we are:
- setting the direction for waste reduction
- increasing investment in waste reduction initiatives and infrastructure
- making system-level change
- addressing problems with individual products and materials
- strengthening compliance, monitoring and enforcement.
Waste strategy
We recently launched our new waste strategy to set Aotearoa New Zealand's direction on waste for the next three decades
Find out more about the strategy
Waste legislation
We are developing new more comprehensive waste legislation to regulate the management of waste, and products and materials circulating in our economy.
Once developed, the new legislation would replace the Waste Minimisation Act 2008 and the Litter Act 1979.
Find out more about the legislation
Building the foundations for a transformed waste system
The new strategy and legislation are both part of Objective 1: Building the foundations for a transformed waste system in our Waste reduction work programme.
We have also released Aotearoa New Zealand's first Emissions Reduction Plan.
The plan includes:
- actions for reducing emissions from the waste sector (with a focus on organic waste)
- policies to reduce emissions from hydrofluorocarbons.
What we are focused on
- Bringing about transformational change
- Bringing our resource recovery systems up to global standards
- Reducing emissions from waste.
Priority areas for investment
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Research and development
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Innovation
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Community projects
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Infrastructure
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Public information
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Te ao Māori initiatives
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Remediating contaminated sites.
Areas we are currently investing in
Reuse, recovery and recycling of materials
We are supporting projects that increase the reuse, recovery and recycling of materials through Te Pūtea Whakamauru Para - the Waste Minimisation Fund.
The fund invests in a wide-range of projects from multi-million-dollar infrastructure investments to smaller hapū/community-centred projects.
See more on the Waste Minimisation Fund
Resource recovery infrastructure
Over the next two years, we are funding a range of resource recovery infrastructure projects through the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund.
See more on the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund
Ways to reduce plastic waste
We are investing $50 million over four years in projects that find ways to use less plastic and make what we do use reusable or recyclable through the Plastics Innovation Fund. The fund opened for expressions of interest for its second funding round on 1 November 2022. The focus of this funding round is reducing soft plastic waste.
See more on the Plastics Innovation Fund
National food waste reduction programmes
We are looking to invest up to $8.3 million in behaviour change programmes that reduce food waste.
The programmes will aim to reduce food waste in three settings: households; Māori-led settings (such as marae, kōhango reo, kura kaupapa, papakāinga); and businesses.
We sought expressions of interest in funding from organisations from 14 November to 4 December 2022.
Find out more about the funding and types of programmes we want to invest in
Remediation of contaminated sites
We fund regional councils and unitary authorities to remediate contaminated sites on behalf of landowners. Landowners seek financial assistance from them.
Increasing and expanding the waste disposal levy
The waste disposal levy provides revenue for the promotion and achievement of waste minimisation.
In July 2021 we began phasing in increases to the waste disposal levy and expanding its scope.
Money raised from the levy increases will provide additional revenue for:
- investment in weighbridges
- expanding data collection and management systems
- strengthening compliance and monitoring activity
- mitigating unintended consequences of the waste disposal levy increases (eg, inappropriate and illegal waste disposal).
See more on the waste disposal levy increase
Improving recycling and food scraps collections
In March 2023 the Government announced changes to household recycling and food scaps collections to make it easier for people to recycle and stop food scraps going to landfill.
Find out about changes to household collections
These changes were consulted on in 2022 alongside proposals for:
- a container return scheme for Aotearoa
- separation of business food waste.
Around 6400 submissions were received on the consultation, with most submitters in favour of the initiatives.
Business food waste
In 2023 the Government announced it would get businesses ready to separate food scraps from general waste by 2030. This is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make better use of organic material. The food scraps can then be used to improve our soil or feed animals.
Find out more about reducing food waste
This work is being progressed alongside proposed new waste legislation. See Waste strategy and legislation
Container return scheme
A container return scheme is a recycling system that incentivises people to return their empty beverage containers for recycling. This is in exchange for a small refundable deposit (eg, 10 or 20 cents).
In March 2023 the Prime Minister announced Government’s decision to defer work on a beverage container return scheme for Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ CRS).
See Freeing up more government bandwidth and money to focus on the cost of living [Beehive website]
Find out more about the container return scheme
Improving the availability, quality and consistency of waste data
Changes are proposed to the Waste Minimisation Act 2008 to improve the availability, quality and consistency of waste data.
This would involve:
- Introduction of mandatory reporting requirements for territorial authorities under Section 86(1)(c) of the Act.
- Introduction of mandatory activity source reporting under Section 86(1)(b), which will enable us to better understand the types of activity generating waste.
- Updates to volume-to-weight conversion factors which are used by sites without weighbridges to inform their tonnage reporting.
See the briefing on the policy proposals
Improved waste data will support a range of initiatives in the Government’s waste work programme including:
- implementation of the New Zealand Waste Strategy (including measuring our progress towards targets)
- improvements to collection of recycling materials from households and businesses under the Transforming kerbside programme
- Aotearoa's first emissions reduction plan published in 2021 and planning for the second in 2024.
The public was consulted on the proposed changes as part of the 2021 Taking responsibility for our waste consultation. Further engagement with the waste sector occurred in 2021.
The proposed new Waste Data Information Reporting Regulations have been drafted and agency consultation has been completed on the exposure draft. Final decisions by Cabinet are expected late 2023.
Further information
If you have further questions on additional waste data information regulations, get in touch at WRED@mfe.govt.nz
Developing end-of-life solutions for priority products
In July 2020, the Government declared six products as priorities for regulated product stewardship schemes. This is where regulations are used to increase incentives for the circular use of a resource.
The priority products are:
- plastic packaging
- tyres
- electrical and electronic products (e-waste including large batteries)
- agrichemicals and their containers
- refrigerants
- farm plastics.
The focus is now on establishing regulated and accredited product stewardship schemes for the priority products.
See more on regulated product stewardship
We recently held a consultation on proposed regulations for product stewardship of tyres and large batteries.
Find out more about the proposed regulations
Phasing out certain single-use plastic items and hard-to-recycle plastic packaging
In June 2021, the Government announced the phase-out of a range of single-use plastic items and hard-to-recycle plastics between late 2022 and mid 2025.
Find out more about the plastic phase-outs
In 2019, the Office of the Prime Minister’s chief science advisor provided recommendations for tackling Aotearoa New Zealand’s plastic waste problem. These were published in the Rethinking plastics in Aotearoa New Zealand report.
In September 2021, the Government published a national plastics action plan to progress actions agreed in its response to the report. The plan included setting up a Plastics Innovation Fund.
See more on the National Plastics Action Plan
See the Plastics Innovation Fund
See the Rethinking plastics in Aotearoa New Zealand report
See the actions agreed in the Government’s response to the report
Reducing environmental harm from outdoor storage of tyres
The National Environmental Standards for Storing Tyres Outdoors enable regional councils to better manage the environmental risks of outdoor tyre storage. The standards came into force on 20 August 2021.
See more on National Environmental Standards for Storing Tyres Outdoor
Reducing organic and food waste
We are working with other agencies on sustainable food systems and food security.
Reducing construction and demolition waste
We are gathering more data to more accurately track and measure waste from construction and site clearance activities.
We are working with other agencies, businesses, and research institutes on initiatives which will help reduce construction and demolition waste and move towards more circular systems for building materials used.
Controlling hazardous substances
The Government is introducing regulatory amendments to the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996. This is to improve the assessment process for hazardous substances.
We also have international commitments for hazardous substances under the Minamata, Stockholm, Rotterdam, and Vienna Conventions.
Strategy for improving compliance, monitoring, and enforcement
We have a direct regulatory role in compliance, monitoring and enforcement of the Waste Minimisation Act 2008.
Our strategy sets out our approach to this and explains how we achieve compliance and interact with regulated communities.
Find out about compliance, monitoring and enforcement under the Waste Minimisation Act
Improving contaminated land management
We are developing new Hazardous Activities and Industries List (HAIL) guidance to help identify, investigate and manage contaminated land.
We are also developing a contaminated land liability regime and a contaminated land strategy for future management of contaminated land.