Regulation could clean up New Zealand's exports of contaminated recycling to developing countries

Eugenie Sage wants more plastic and paper recycled in New Zealand. (Video first published in May 2019)

New international regulations could prevent New Zealand's plastic recycling being dumped, buried and burned in developing countries.

Currently, most recycling shipped overseas is unregulated - but new requirements under the Basel Convention could place limits on "contaminated" plastic exports.

In the developing countries New Zealand sends recycling to, dirty, contaminated plastic is useless, Massey University environmental anthropologist Dr Trisia Farrelly says.

"They can't do anything with it ... they either have to bury it, or they open burn it, dump it, or they incinerate it."

New Zealand can't recycle its own rubbish, so it's mostly sent to developing countries.

Farelly said the Government was presenting New Zealanders with two options - sending recycling with or without limits on contamination.

"We need to make sure that there's clear limits for the contamination of our waste shipped offshore," she said.  

"We need to look really carefully at how we're sorting our waste, and what our waste structure looks like."

The convention, in effect from January 2021, means most "mixed plastic" waste exports would require prior consent from the receiving countries, a Ministry for the Environment spokeswoman said. 

New Zealand doesn't have its own onshore recycling for the majority of its plastic.

"The relatively free trade in plastic waste for recycling has led to limited transparency about the type of waste exported, and how it is ultimately recycled or disposed of," she said. 

The Ministry is proposing changes to its Imports and Exports Order to meet Basel Convention requirements, and include "mixed plastic waste" in New Zealand's permitting system.

Currently, the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) is only required to issue permits for exports of "hazardous" plastic waste, or plastic waste mixed with other waste. 

The Basel Amendments take aim at recycling which results in "residual waste" in developing countries. 

Waste being dumped overseas could be made up of contaminants like food, dirt, other contamination, or consist of plastic types that shouldn’t be in that particular bale and/or won’t be recycled (eg, PVC in a bale of PET). 

"Waste is often dumped in landfills or burned, which has negative environmental outcomes." 

The dumped waste could be made up of contaminants like food, dirt, other contamination, or consist of plastic types that shouldn’t be in that particular bale.

"[The Basel Convention] will encourage the trade in high-value, separated plastic waste for recycling, and discourage the trade in lower-value, mixed plastic waste which tends to cause more residual waste and worse environmental effects." 

New Zealand has a range of measures to reduce contamination, she said.

Those included consumer education about proper recycling, collection methods like kerbside, commercial and drop-off, sorting at facilities to reduce contamination, and baling materials to the export requirements of offshore markets. 

Consumer education about proper recycling could reduce contamination. 

Farelly said it was time for New Zealand to clean up its act.

"We should be working towards a circular economy where we can recycle all of our own plastics, and not ship it offshore to developing countries." 

The case for cleaner recycling was made clear last year when Indonesia sent five containers of contaminated waste back - it was too contaminated.  

But the returned containers never made it back to New Zealand, and Farelly believed they were intercepted by another developing country. 

"Developing countries want to retain relationships with bigger countries," she said. 

The Ministry spokeswoman said it had no further information from Indonesian officials on the location of the containers, or the nature of any alleged contamination.

Feedback on the proposals can be emailed to basel@mfe.govt.nz by 5pm on 22 May 2020.