Single use plastic bags to be banned.

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#2157754 10-Jan-2019 20:34

MileHighKiwi:

Not sure what you do with your plastic bags, but mine go in the wheelie bin after they have been filled with rubbish, nappies etc...

The opposition to the ban, from me personally, is that is not going to achieve anything. The only benefits will be to the supermarkets who will now sell you a bag that was previously free.

And you'd be totally wrong. Australia's experience is that while plastic bag use is decreased by 80%(!), supermarkets actually experience a drop in impulse sales that results in shrunken profit margins as people will no longer just buy a bunch of stuff since "oh, I don't have anything to carry this home".

So no, the supermarkets will not benefit.

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#2157755 10-Jan-2019 20:38

Kyanar:

MileHighKiwi:

Not sure what you do with your plastic bags, but mine go in the wheelie bin after they have been filled with rubbish, nappies etc...

The opposition to the ban, from me personally, is that is not going to achieve anything. The only benefits will be to the supermarkets who will now sell you a bag that was previously free.

And you'd be totally wrong. Australia's experience is that while plastic bag use is decreased by 80%(!), supermarkets actually experience a drop in impulse sales that results in shrunken profit margins as people will no longer just buy a bunch of stuff since "oh, I don't have anything to carry this home".

So no, the supermarkets will not benefit.

hey that's me.

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#2157974 11-Jan-2019 10:13

frankv:

Similarly, the idea that these plastic bags last forever, or thousands of years. I have the remains of some old plastic grocery bags in my attic (I had used them to hold some old documents). The plastic bags have disintegrated to powder in a couple of years. I also re-use 2L ice cream containers; these seem to break down after a year or so. Whilst the particles that the plastic breaks down to may last for thousands of years, the same goes for sand.

The ones that disintegrate were the terrible idea degradable ones that existed for a while, they are full of starch or something which makes them a lot weaker, and when they do disintigrate they become tiny pieces of plastic which are much worse when they get into the ecosystem - look at the microbead situation.

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#2158003 11-Jan-2019 10:43

Disclaimer: even though I disagree with the ban, we've been using reusable bags for years, but would occasionally get the 'single use' bags so we can use it as a bin liner, or for the kids soiled nappies.

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#2158026 11-Jan-2019 11:23

richms:

frankv:

Similarly, the idea that these plastic bags last forever, or thousands of years. I have the remains of some old plastic grocery bags in my attic (I had used them to hold some old documents). The plastic bags have disintegrated to powder in a couple of years. I also re-use 2L ice cream containers; these seem to break down after a year or so. Whilst the particles that the plastic breaks down to may last for thousands of years, the same goes for sand.

The ones that disintegrate were the terrible idea degradable ones that existed for a while, they are full of starch or something which makes them a lot weaker, and when they do disintigrate they become tiny pieces of plastic which are much worse when they get into the ecosystem - look at the microbead situation.

Nope... just regular supermarket bags. Nothing special about them.

Re microbeads: Yup. But, again, 4 particles per cubic metre of sea water. Not something to panic over.

I expect that people who use microbead-containing makeup must ingest hundreds if not thousands of microbeads daily. Apparently with no health effects. So I do also wonder about whether that applies to sea creatures too. And how much worse for a sea creature a particle of plastic is than a particle of sand/silt of the same size.

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#2158096 11-Jan-2019 12:52

Plastic particles are a very different case from sand/silt. Sand and silt only affects sea organisms in the intertidal and estuarine areas. They're well evolved to deal with sand and, arguably, plastic particles. Organisms that live and feed offshore are the most affected by plastic.

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#2158099 11-Jan-2019 13:05

Something that always irks me with any social issue is when someone says because we cant make much of a difference, we don't need to do anything.

It speaks volumes to me about the person who said it. IMHO.

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#2975747 1-Oct-2022 10:53

Press release:

Single-use plastic cotton buds, drink stirrers and most plastic meat trays are among single use plastics banned from sale or manufacture from tomorrow.

“This is the first group of the most problematic plastic products to be banned in a progressive phase out over the next three years,” Environment Minister David Parker said.

“Stopping the sale of these plastic products will reduce waste to landfill, improve our recycling systems and encourage reusable or environmentally responsible alternatives.”

Plastics that are banned from sale from 1 October 2022 are:

Single-use plastic drink stirrers
Single-use plastic cotton buds
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pre-formed food trays and containers*
Polystyrene takeaway packaging for food and beverages
Expanded polystyrene food and beverage retail packaging (such as foam takeaway containers or some instant noodle cups)
Plastics with additives that make them fragment into micro-plastics
“On average, every year each New Zealander sends about 750kgs of waste to landfill. Some products can’t be recycled and are unnecessary,” David Parker said.

"These are the first group of plastic products to be banned since the ban on single-use plastic bags in 2019. That has meant more than one billion fewer plastic bags have ended up in landfills or the ocean," David Parker said.

“Recent announcements on investments from the Plastics Innovation Fund, as well as funding to help co-design a product stewardship scheme for plastic packaging also show this Government’s commitment to tackling the problems caused by plastic waste,” David Parker said.

In mid-2023, the next group of single-use plastics to be phased out will include single use plastic plates, bowls, cutlery, single-use plastic produce bags and non-compostable produce labels. Other PVC and polystyrene food and beverage packaging will be banned from mid-2025.

Taking action to minimise waste and problem plastics is part of the Cooperation Agreement between Labour and the Green Party, building on the progress made as part of last term’s Confidence and Supply Agreement.

Green Party environment spokesperson Eugenie Sage said: “The phase out of single use plastic shopping bags was the first step towards an Aotearoa free of plastic pollution. Today’s announcement is further progress in achieving that vision.

“The phase out of plastic shopping bags showed how easily we can make changes at retail and household level to avoid plastic waste and do better for nature. We won’t miss these plastic items when they are gone either. With a bit of support and advice, switching to reusable products to replace these unnecessary plastics is easy,” she said.

Notes to editors:

Under the Waste Minimisation Act 2008 the definition of ‘sold’ includes giving products away for free. Businesses with excess stock of these items on 1 October may:

Use them internally, for example for food storage or food preparation, but it would be a breach of the law to sell or give them to customers or any other person.
Contact industry bodies or local recyclers to determine whether their products can be recycled onshore. For some clean unused items there may be recycling solutions. A list of New Zealand recyclers can be found here: Recyclers | Plastics New Zealand.
Contact suppliers about taking products back.
Dispose of them to landfill.
There will be an exception for cases where plastic or synthetic cotton buds have specific uses where such items are required to be sterile or sterilized and alternatives do not yet exist. This includes:

As part of a medical device that is not sold by retail
In a veterinary clinic for diagnosis or sampling
In a commercial food laboratory for food sampling
In a laboratory for scientific investigation
As part of scientific or medical testing kits (eg, those in COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Tests)
There is more information here Ministry for the Environment and guidance on the plastics being banned and the alternatives that can be used.

* This ban is limited to PVC trays used for meat (and alternative meat products), produce and baked goods. If the PVC plastic is formed, filled with food and then mechanically sealed on the same line, it is not in the scope of this ban.

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#2975748 1-Oct-2022 10:55

Rikkitic

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#2975749 1-Oct-2022 11:04

No doubt the reactionaries will start screeching about this like they did with plastic bags, but at the least it is a positive and worthy gesture and it might even do some good.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

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#2975771 1-Oct-2022 12:35

Kind of a shame it takes government regulation to force people to ‘do the right thing’. Even for something that might do some good. Human nature I guess.

I don’t know about reactionary, but after the last 2 years, I am sick of being told what to do…..

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

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#2975800 1-Oct-2022 13:26

It depends on scale. Consider this hypothetical example - you drink coffee with sugar stirred in.

With the sort of directives that have occurred in dealing with Covid, you would be told that you can no longer add sugar or cannot drink coffee. With the new ban you are being restricted in the type of stirrer available.

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#2975919 1-Oct-2022 14:59

I've always thought that if we want to really make a positive environmental impact, then the sales or manufacture of problematic items must be looked at, instead of the consumer having to decide what to buy at the end point once these items have already been made.

I'm not a huge greenie by any means, but I do appreciate and take advantage of the greener options where practically possible. And that's based on the real impact, not just what some fancy marketing crap tried to persuade me to buy.

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#2975921 1-Oct-2022 15:10

@Dingbatt I think a lot of people are getting sick of a lot of things after the last few years and don’t want more regulation. Everyday living has become more difficult for everyone with rising costs and far too many changes thrown at us all at once, it’s hard to be content with a blood soaked paper tray of meat, or satay noodle soup being delivered in paper.

The tradesman and delivery people stuck with the 30k and less limits that will cost us all extra charges in travel time and more expensive services. Everyone get on a bike as we’re taking away your parking and making cycle lanes but no alternatives for those that can’t cycle and don’t live near a bus stop. Getting rid of plastic yet local law states that you have to wrap the entire building in thousands of meters of heavy duty plastic to renovate or build it. We managed for so many years to build without this.

Hard times are getting worse for everyone and the many changes pushed on to our daily lives are relentless and tiring. Worse is that there is no consensus amongst all the brains if this path is right or wrong. Who wants to make a sacrifice only to learn a few years later it wasn’t necessary and now there’s a new one foisted upon us.

We raced off to get cotton bags to replace the plastic ones until we found out that we need to use it 20,000 times or for 54 years to offset the impact of its production. I hope that paper isn’t going the same way.

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#2975924 1-Oct-2022 15:21

Eva888:

We raced off to get cotton bags to replace the plastic ones until we found out that we need to use it 20,000 times or for 54 years to offset the impact of its production. I hope that paper isn’t going the same way.

all i'll say is i'm still going through my stockpile of one use shopping bags after all these years.

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