The government will start phasing out polystyrene packaging and beverage containers in response to a major new report calling for a nationwide rethink on plastics in New Zealand, PM Jacinda Ardern announced today. Here’s what you need to know about the announcement, and the Rethinking Plastics in Aotearoa report.

For much of the year, a panel of experts have been examining the role of plastics in New Zealand, and coming up with ways to reduce both plastic use and plastic waste in every sphere of life. Their report Rethinking Plastics in Aotearoa was released today, and in response the PM has announced the government will phase out more single-use plastics, including hard-to-recycle PVC and polystyrene.

Do we really need a report to tell us to use less plastic?

In this case yes, because Rethinking Plastics isn’t just more finger-wagging about using fewer plastic bags. It’s a wide-ranging report that encourages government, industry and the public to question every aspect of plastic usage in New Zealand.

While the report recommends plenty of specific changes that could help us use less plastic immediately, it also calls for the implementation of a National Plastics Action Plan that would guide government thinking for years to come, with the ultimate target of creating a fully circular economy for plastic – one in which plastic use is dramatically reduced, plastic that does reach the market is kept around for as long as possible, and is either recycled or otherwise reutilised at the end of its life cycle.

And what is the government doing about it?

In response to the report, PM Jacinda Ardern announced this morning some “next steps” on plastics. “Our first target will be to move away from single-use packaging and beverage containers made of hard-to-recycle PVC and polystyrene. Examples include polystyrene meat trays, cups and takeaway food containers. We will work towards ensuring that these are made of high-value alternatives like PET, HDPE and polypropylene, which can be recycled and reprocessed.” She also pledged to accelerate efforts to improve kerbside recycling. Stuff reported this morning that the government also plans to ban plastic cotton buds, single-use plastic cutlery and non-compostible fruit stickers.

Remind me why all this is necessary?

Out-of-control plastic use is one of the great environmental emergencies of our generation. Plastic production and disposal is a major contributor to climate change, and waste plastics – especially particulates, aka microplastics and nanoplastics – are wreaking havoc on our environment and potentially our own health.

A 2017 report estimated that since the invention of plastic, 8.3 billion tonnes of virgin plastic has been produced globally, around 80% of which will have ended up in landfill. Packaging and other single-use plastics are responsible for 36% of the total plastic produced worldwide, with building and construction, textiles and consumer products also making significant contributions to our plastic crisis.

OK, lay it on me. How do we get out of this mess?

The report has six key recommendations:

1. Implement a National Plastics Action Plan

This is the big one – a vision and timeline for New Zealand’s transition to a circular economy for plastics, based on the recommendations below.

2. Improve plastics data collection

It’s hard to make improvements without an accurate baseline, and there is currently no standardised approach to measure or report plastic use and disposal in New Zealand. “As a result,” the report says, “there are large gaps in our understanding of the material flows of plastic through the country.”

3. Embed rethinking plastics in the government agenda

The report has a whole heap of recommendations aimed at getting government to come to the plastics party. These include implementing sustainable plastic policies in government departments and agencies, updating trade policy to reflect best international practice, and launching national plastic awareness and information campaigns.

4. Create and enable consistency in design, use and disposal

The report argues that one of the largest problems with our current approach to plastics is a lack of consistency. Just think about plastic recycling: what’s recyclable in Auckland may not be in Invercargill, or vice versa, and that’s something the report says we need to fix. Along with a raft of suggestions to improve industry standards on plastic usage and waste, the report recommends the introduction of a national container deposit scheme .

5. Innovate and amplify

New Zealand needs more investment in plastic research and innovation, the report’s authors say, and we need to pay more attention to what’s happening in this sphere overseas. The specific recommendations here include a innovation fund to “reimagine plastics” and expos “to highlight and bring together innovative ideas from around the world related to plastics”.

6. Mitigate environmental and health impacts of plastics

A series of recommendations related to the science of plastic use and waste, with a focus on local communities, taonga species and sites of significance to mana whenua; the dispersal and environmental effects of microplastics; environmental and food safety of recycled plastic and new materials; and methods for monitoring nanoplastics (that’s the even smaller, even more potentially dangerous version of microplastics).

That all sounds great, but a little dry. Do you have anything a bit more inspirational?

The Rethinking Plastics does, opening with an extended vision of a New Zealand in 2030 where our relationship to plastic has entirely transformed. And even the most cynical among us must admit it sounds quite nice. “Pretty much everyone has their own keep-cups these days,” it imagines, “and teenagers look at you funny if you don’t have your own meal containers handy too…. Following the landfill audit in 2020, the last of the old‐style dumps closed three years ago, and all facilities are sealed, with leachate treated, microplastics trapped, and waste‐to‐energy schemes embedded in the infrastructure… Aotearoa New Zealand has a goal to be the first country to declare that it is no longer in the plastic age with a target date of 2050 – having reversed the environmental damage a century after the introduction of plastic as a revolutionary new material.”

What do the experts say?

They seem excited. “The Rethinking Plastics report is a call to action,” says Dr Olga Pantos, a senior scientist at ESR who was also a member of the Rethinking Plastics panel. “It means thinking about the environmental and social costs of plastic and making that a central part of our daily lives.”

The bill unveiled this week represents an excellent opportunity to take control of the supply of cannabis and properly reduce harms, writes Joe Boden, director of the Christchurch Health and Development Study.

By now the harms associated with cannabis use are well-known. Research from New Zealand – in particular the Christchurch and Dunedin longitudinal studies – has shown that cannabis use, in particular for younger and heavier users, is known to be associated with mental health problems such as depression, psychotic symptoms and cannabis dependence.

It is also associated with poorer educational and employment outcomes, and a range of more general health problems such as impaired lung function. However, these problems have existed, and continue to exist in our communities despite decades of cannabis prohibition. Prohibition does not stop people using cannabis, and our own research in the Christchurch Health and Development Study has shown that arrests and convictions for cannabis do not deter people from using the drug.

In addition, prohibition has a strong element of racial bias, in that Māori are much more likely to be arrested or convicted than non-Māori, even after accounting for different rates of use. Furthermore, the criminalisation of drug users itself is one of the major harms associated with cannabis use. To put it plainly, prohibition has been an utter failure that continues to waste police time, resources and money, has kept the trade in cannabis under the control of gangs and organised crime, and does not stop anyone using the drug. It is well past time to try something different.

This week the justice minister, Andrew Little, released details of the Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill, which would lift the status quo of prohibition. All of us will get to vote on whether that bill becomes law next year as part of a referendum attached to the 2020 general election. The bill represents an excellent opportunity to take control of the supply of cannabis, regulate its sale, improve the safety and purity of the product, and redirect illicit trade of the drug to legal, taxable sources.

It should be noted that there has been a recent change to the long-established prohibition regime. An amendment of the Misuse of Drugs Act (1975) passed in August 2019, changed the law so that drug use is now subject to a “soft decriminalisation”, requiring that the police are to ensure that drug possession for personal use is treated as a health issue, and that arrest and prosecution for drug offences should only occur when such prosecution can be shown to be “in the public good”. However, as welcome as this change was, the result is that the police still have discretion in choosing whom to charge and prosecute, and it still leaves the business of the cannabis trade in the hands of gangs and criminals who do not pay taxes on their profits, who do not test and label their products, and who do not ask for proof of age from their customers.

The details of the new bill are generally very encouraging. The proposed law will prohibit use by teenagers, who are most vulnerable to cannabis-related harm, by setting the age of use at 20. It would of course be naïve to assume that those under 20 will not be able to access cannabis, but efforts at reducing access to tobacco among young people over the past 30 years have been relatively successful.

The law creates an authority which would license cannabis suppliers and retailers, and have the power to suspend licences where conditions are breached. The law will also regulate where cannabis can be consumed (private homes and licensed premises which are not allowed to sell either alcohol or tobacco), and how much can be purchased (14 grams per day). There will be no advertising of cannabis products allowed, and products sold in licensed premises will be subject to plain packaging, and will be tested and limited in terms of THC content, increasing the safety of cannabis flower and derivative products.

There will also be a significant harm reduction by eliminating most criminal penalties around cannabis use. Cannabis products will attract a tax based on weight and THC content, and this income will be earmarked for health and education. Also, for the avid gardeners among us, people will have the option of growing up to two cannabis plants on their own properties.

A further positive aspect of the bill that has not received much attention as yet is that the authority will have the capacity and mandate to ensure that data will be collected on cannabis use across the whole of New Zealand, something that has not been undertaken particularly well or regularly to this point. Furthermore, the authority will also support research that informs evidence-based approaches to harm-reduction strategies. These are precisely the tools that we need to ensure that any change to cannabis laws are not increasing cannabis-related harm in our communities.

There remain some ambiguities in the proposed law, and there are some things that are not as positive. For example, the draft bill has a provision that any person providing cannabis to a person under age 20 is subject to a fine of up to $150,000 and up to four years’ imprisonment. This will clearly be difficult to enforce, and seems far too draconian for a law that aims to view cannabis through a health lens, rather than a justice lens.

It is to be hoped that these issues and others (such as pricing, location of retail outlets, and related matters) will be ironed out over the next few months while the bill is debated. Overall, however, the draft bill is a positive step for New Zealand to begin treating cannabis use as a health issue, rather than a criminal justice issue.