Govt Consultation on Landfill Levy, Waste Data and More: An Explainer from the Zero Waste Community

Ngā mihi mō te tau hou!

At the end of last year the Ministry for the Environment released an 81 page tome announcing a proposal to increase and expand the waste disposal levy (the landfill levy), improve waste data, and make a plan for how to invest the extra levy revenue. The proposal is out for public consultation – submissions are due by 3 February 2020, 5pm. Make a submission here.

As with the product stewardship consultation, we got feedback on social media that people would find it helpful if we could produce some accessible info docs to support them in making a submission. So here’s what we’ve got to offer you:

1. Consultation Document Summary/Explainer

We teamed up with the New Zealand Product Stewardship Council, Para Kore, Zero Waste Network Aotearoa, and Envision New Zealand (and got support and technical advice from the very knowledgeable Lisa Eve) to distill the 81 page doc into its key components and to set out our position on the proposals so that you know where we stand. Scroll down to have a read or check it out here.

2. Joint Submission

Check out our joint submission that we produced alongside the following organisations also committed to zero waste: New Zealand Product Stewardship Council, Zero Waste Network, Envision, Para Kore, RefillNZ, Aotearoa Plastic Pollution Alliance, Wanaka Wastebusters, Whāingaroa Environment Centre, Ākina, Xtreme Zero Waste, Plastic Free Raglan, and Whāingaroa Environmental Defence Incorporated.

3. Zero Waste Network template submission

If you would like to have a nice, user friendly template to start with for you personal submission, check out the Zero Waste Network submission template.

4. Webinar

The Ministry for the Environment ran a couple of webinars on the proposals. You can check out the slides here.

Aaaaand, we also ran a live, online Q&A webinar on Thursday 30 January, 7-8pm, alongside Karen Driver from Envision, to go over the consultation and proposals, step through the submission process, and answer any further questions attendees might have. Check out the thrilling video recording below… FYI that we forgot to press record in the first few minutes where we introduced ourselves and where we explained the outline for the webinar, which was basically:

• Starting with an overview of what the government consultation/proposals cover (in a nutshell), indicate our general position on the proposals & then discuss some common concerns/questions about increasing and expanding the landfill levy.
• Giving attendees the chance to ask questions about that overview, and also to outline anything in particular that they were hoping to get out of the session.
• Going through the submission form question by question, giving attendees the chance to comment every few questions or so.

https://www.facebook.com/TheRubbishTrip/videos/2425542251091183/

And one last thing… 

… be aware that, unlike product stewardship, which most people seem keen to get behind (once they understand what it is!), increasing the levy is controversial because… taxes! When the proposal is viewed in isolation, it looks a bit like the Government focusing on the end of the waste disposal pipe, rather than the bigger picture. But remember that this is only one policy proposal among many – the product stewardship proposal came first. We think it’s important to view the Government’s Waste Work Programme holistically and remember that there are many pieces to the puzzle of our waste problems.