Press Release by Trevor Munro, President of the Scrap Metal Recycling Association of New Zealand (SMRANZ) on today’s
Demonstration outside Parliament.
“We are demonstrating today because we are very unhappy with the Waste Minimisation Bill’s inclusion of scrap metal in
the definition of waste.
“This was done by an amendment that we were not consulted on. And it is patently obvious that scrap metal – which is New
Zealand’s 17th biggest export earner, with a turnover of about a billion dollars per annum – is not “waste”. Defining it
as waste will only undermine our ability to export it and jeopardise the jobs of around 1,000 New Zealanders.
“Through hard work on our part, we have managed to get some discussion going to change this part of the Bill. Overall,
we support the Bill’s sentiment, which is to prevent material being deposited into landfill. That is what scrap metal
recyclers have been doing successfully for decades.
“The purpose of the demonstration today is to highlight the importance of our industry to New Zealand and also to get
public commitments by each of the political parties as to how they will vote on an amendment to get scrap metal out of
the definition of “waste” in the Waste Minimisation Bill when that Bill comes back before the House tomorrow for its
Committee of the whole House stage.
“We are looking forward with interest to what each of the parties might have to say on that matter! “ Trevor Munro
said.
ENDS