10 July 2007

Media Release

Public thumbs down for container deposit charge

In the first nationwide public polling on two proposed new waste taxes, New Zealanders give the thumbs down to one, and approval to the other.

A proposed new tax on sold waste going to landfills is well supported: 67% say yes.

However, support for a new charge on containers (partly refundable when they are taken back to shops or collection centres) evaporates when New Zealanders are asked if they want to pay and are given a choice of alternatives.

84% prefer using kerbside and more bins in public places for container recycling to being forced to pay an extra charge, according to ShapeNZ poll of 1378 respondents nationwide from June 15 to 20. The margin of error is plus or minus 2%.

While there is initial support for the idea of a container deposit charge when people are first asked (45% for, 33% oppose, 19% neutral), 60% of New Zealanders want to pay either nothing or as little as 5 cents extra as a container deposit scheme cost – a level believed to be uneconomic for it.

New Zealanders buy over 670 thousand tonnes of packaging every year, and recycle about half of it. 95% of New Zealanders have access to facilities to recycle paper, glass, cans and plastics numbered 1 and 2, and 77% of councils offer households a kerbside recycling service. Under container deposit legislation (CDL) consumers would pay more when they buy certain products (e.g. drink bottles) which would then be partially refunded if they drop the used container back to a collection point. CDL advocates say this system will provide a financial incentive for returning products or packaging to a centralised facility or to the point of sale.

Opponents claim CDL will duplicate and compete with kerbside council collections and add significant costs for consumers, retailers and bottlers. The packaging industry in New Zealand says it can further improve recycling rates by offering public place recycling facilities – allowing people to deposit containers in special bins in public places, in addition to kerbside recycling by councils. They claim these facilities can be located where they are most needed and will be less costly than CDL. It seems the public agrees.

In the ShapeNZ poll, a majority of people intending to vote for every party with MPs now in Parliament support a combination of kerbside collection and more public place recycling bins ahead of CDL.

Given the option to select one of three options, 25% select kerbside collection, 14% an extra charge and taking the container back for a refund, and 59% kerbside collection and more public place recycling bins. Only 2% don't know which they would prefer.

When asked "would you personally be prepared to pay extra for products to cover the deposit required by CDL?", 45% say no, 40% yes and 15% don't know.

To make CDL (which involves retailers providing space for returned material and also setting up other collection centres) economic, it's thought a minimum charge of 10c on each container will need to be imposed at retail to cover all costs.

However, 60% either want to pay nothing or only up to 5 cents. Only 40% are prepared to pay 10 cents or more.

A Green Party private member's bill now before a Parliamentary select committee makes provision for a new $25 per tonne levy, to be paid by those taking solid waste to landfill. In the ShapeNZ poll, 67% support the levy, 19% oppose and 2% don't know.

The New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development – whose 57 members' annual sales equate to about 30% of gross domestic product and include the country's biggest retailer, The Warehouse, advocates a levy starting at $10 per tonne, rising to $30 in three years.

The Business Council has told MPs noise, smell, leachate and greenhouse gas emissions will eventually become a problem at even well-managed landfills and the levy will encourage those creating waste to price it. They will then look for other ways to reduce waste by re-cycling it, or making it into other products and profiting from it.

The Business Council argues the fund should be used to kick start previously marginal projects which find new ways to use and profit from waste. The new fund should be open to regional and local government, trusts, central Government and private sector organisations – and be spent only on projects passing a cost-benefit analysis. Any surplus funds should go to cleaning up contaminated land across the country.

The Minister for the Environment, David Benson-Pope, says he supports expanding the bill and will be sending a list of additional initiatives to the select committee.

The Minister says he retains an open mind on bringing in legislation to impose an extra charge on containers at the point of sale.

The ShapeNZ poll is ongoing at www.shapenz.org.nz. Other results, including New Zealanders' responses to policy proposals to mass insulate 300,000 cold homes; on their preferred general direction for climate change management policy; and on what actions Kiwis will take personally to manage climate change are covered in other Business Council media releases today. They are available at www.nzbcsd.org.nz, along with the Climate Change Survey II results report.

ENDS

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