How to Accelerate Extended Producer Responsibility in New Zealand

Product stewardship has come a long way in Aotearoa New Zealand in recent years, but today we find ourselves somewhat in the doldrums. To get things moving, to accelerate extended producer responsibility, we need a signal from the Government around what products are being considered next for regulation.

Five years ago, the country took a big step forward with the declaration of six priority products by the then Minister for the Environment. Before they were announced the Ministry for the Environment released a list of 30 products which were being considered for priority product status.

This signaled to industry, and product stewardship designers like us at 3R Group, to begin doing the work – to get together to look at options, ahead of any regulation. If you can lead you have the luxury of time to collaborate, to clearly define challenges and opportunities, and get to a place where you are ready for regulation.

Unfortunately, we are now essentially stuck on the current six priority products from 2020. There’s work happening on them, which is all at various stages and happening at different speeds, but there have been no signals to indicate what’s next. Until then, there is little impetus for widespread action.

Tyrewise, New Zealand’s first regulated product stewardship scheme, is an example of what can be achieved when industry knows what’s coming up. There was time to do the necessary work so when regulation came into effect the scheme could progress quickly.

Critically, this also means the scheme was effective from the get-go, collecting more than double its target tonnage in the first quarter of operation. It has set the standard for future schemes – thanks in large part to all the work over the preceding years.

This ‘advanced warning’ also means we can look at existing regulation to see if and how it fits and what work needs to be done. With Tyrewise, we looked at how the Waste Minimisation Act 2008 could support a regulated scheme.

In the end there was a fair amount of work which had to be done for the Act to effectively support a regulated stewardship scheme, including a Cabinet paper released in 2023 focused on embedding externed producer responsibility into the Act.

These signals from government are essential and unfortunately there’s no substitute – it must come from them. What we are doing in the meantime is showing how effective and beneficial regulated stewardship can be.

Adele Rose
Chief Executive Officer
3R Group