Where should the tax be collected? At point of sale or point of manufacture? Or both?

Do you think there may be unintended negative consequences, eg milk becoming too expensive for the financially challenged?

I would see it added by point of manufacture or filling by milk company.
I would hope government would give market 2 years to come up with alternatives eg go back to milk bottles, or Maybe we go back to tetrapaks at least they should break down
We have done with single use plastic bags. Now we need to do for all other plastic bottles

I would hope tetrapaks or milk bottles would be same price so those who can least afford a price increase shouldn't be disadvantaged

What's wrong with plastic milk bottles again?

Why milk bottles in particular? As council recycling schemes accept them. Yet there are lots of other kinds of plastic that are not recyclable.

If anything, they should implement the 10c per bottle refund scheme that some other countries have.

Lets tax everything!!

Wait ...we do. 15% GST.

the tax is not a revenue stream for govt coffers.. but a disincentive tax to stop using specific types of packaging.

So my example was milk bottles.. I want to see a disincentive tax on all plastic containers.
eg containers for ice cream, washing powder, fizzy bottles, water bottles

The money gathered can be directed to fund recycling plants

Most of all I detest the hard plastic packaging wrapped around just about everything in any hardware store. Bunnings is terrible but Mitre 10 is no better. None of this crap packaging is actually necessary for anything. It is almost impossible to get open. I would love to see a 'disincentive' tax on this crap, the higher the better. It would only temporarily disadvantage consumers. Once sales plummeted, the stores would start to take it seriously. The whine that they have no choice because that's how it comes from the supplier, but if no-one buys this rubbish the supplier will also get the message. 

I would have thought this Government would have come up with new recycling plants in conjunction with Australia etc. All they have done is ban plastic bags....not very impressive.

Disincentive taxation seriously affects the poor dis proportionally to the middle to wealthy groups.

Bluntj: I would have thought this Government would have come up with new recycling plants in conjunction with Australia etc. All they have done is ban plastic bags....not very impressive.

Just putting in recycling plants doesn't fix the problem.. if we did that we would have govt subsiding industry to make bad products/ a recycing plant is like saying to dairy industry continue polluting, we will put in water cleaning plants

Disincentive taxation seriously affects the poor dis proportionally to the middle to wealthy groups.

Govt needs to make sure industry produces sustainable reuseable packaging that everyone can still afford

Govt is there to regulate good policy/practice

No system can ever be perfect. GST is a huge disincentive tax that hits the poor disproportionately. Get rid of it and everyone would have more money to spend on stuff. One idea that might (or might not) have merit is a high import tax on plastic packaging, since that is the hardest to control. This would push retailers to pressure their suppliers and take measures to reduce plastic packaging. Everyone keeps saying New Zealand is too small a player to make a difference, but I'm not sure that is true. It is big enough that overseas companies want to sell their products here. At the least, we might nudge others to also take steps. 

Rikkitic:

 

The whine that they have no choice because that's how it comes from the supplier, but if no-one buys this rubbish the supplier will also get the message. 

 

The suppliers wouldn't notice if every single person in NZ stopped buying. We would need to convince a much larger country or bloc to come along with us.

Bluntj:

 

Lets tax everything!!

 

Wait ...we do. 15% GST.

 

It used to be 12.5!  :-)

Bluntj:

 

I would have thought this Government would have come up with new recycling plants in conjunction with Australia etc. All they have done is ban plastic bags....not very impressive.

 

 

 

I wasn't aware this issue started in Nov 2017. This Govt could do more. That Govt could have done more.

Back to the actual topic, I favour a disincentive tax, as long as there is an option for the taxed product and an alternative. That would take time, a lot of people need to have a lot of talk to bring in alternatives. We pretty much don't recycle. There is so much that can be die there as not all plastics can be re used, plus Ilm unsure if a recycled plastic is cheaper than new. Packaging needs a wholesale, national, consumer/business, discussion. You cannot really change one or two things, as each of these will cause a gap, or as above, a cost to the low income.ALL of the packaging industry needs to be redesigned.

Why milk bottles? did you think of the unintended consequences? The liquid is practically essential for kids, it's a breakfast item, it is an important source of calcium (especially for women) and so on.

Why not instead tax water bottles, or soda drinks instead, which are non-essentials?