Podcast
The Kiwi Bottle Drive is a national campaign calling for 10c bottle deposits in Aotearoa New Zealand in order to reduce littering and lift recycling rates. In Matamata, the local Transition Town has embraced The Kiwi Bottle Drive with resounding success, spearheaded by their president Gord Stewart. Along the way, Transition Matamata have discovered the huge levels of public support for such a scheme – in a week they received over 650 signatures for the petition, sent over 350 plastic bottles to Scott Simpson, Associate Minister for the Environment, and amassed over 5000 bottles on Kiwi Bottle Drive day for recycling.
We spoke with Colin and Gabrielle Kemplen, two members of Transition Matamata, who spent a lot of time on the streets of Matamata promoting the petition and the Kiwi Bottle Drive. With their ears to the ground, they have many insights to share about why a bottle deposit scheme is a ‘no-brainer’, as well as many questions to ask about why central government is dragging its heels…
Photo credit: photo on left taken by Rexine Hawes. Original article can be found here: https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/95172295/plastic-bottles-popped-in-the-post-to-coromandel-mp-scott-simpson
