Kaitiakitanga, systemic change, people power and an overarching message of hope were the pillars of a Greenpeace Aotearoa webinar recently.
Last week we hosted a webinar called Imagining a Plastic Free Future. Our panelists included our own campaigner Juressa Lee, who was joined by Malaysian waste exports activist Pua Lay Peng and waste expert Hannah Blumhardt who runs The Rubbish Trip to explore the ideas around what a plastic free future could look like.
The kōrero was enriching, powerful and honest, diving into issues such as the importance of the Government’s single-use plastics phase-out being expanded to include more items, and the first logical step of banning the bottle. It also shed more light on the devastating impacts of our plastic waste exports on Lay Peng’s community and the health of her people.
“The open conversation in the webinar must join previous conversations as another platform for these issues to be discussed,” says Greenpeace Aotearoa plastics campaigner Juressa Lee.
“The issue of plastic is so broad and encompassing that we all need to be speaking about it as a way of collectively developing strategies to combat this global issue which is a polluter at every point along the supply chain of production.”
During the webinar, Hannah Blumhardt agreed saying there needs to be a committed focus on eliminating plastic from the source of production.
“It’s really easy to get focussed on plastic floating in the marine environment and that’s really important. But it’s also important to understand that plastic pollutes at every point of the supply chain from the extraction of oil through to production, its use phase, recycling and the disposal phase.”
“The clothes we wear shed microfibres, when we drive vehicles the tyres are shedding microfibres so we are constantly shedding plastic microfibers through general use of products…Plastics are also used in fast moving consumer goods companies as packaging,” says Blumhardt.
The plastic pollution problem is a big one, and we can do our best as individuals and feel like we will never get there. It will feel dismal tackling what is really a systemic problem with a keep cup. We are not responsible for the overproduction of plastic and unregulated industries. Systemic change can only happen at the top, and what we can do as individuals is come together in people power.
“It’s really important to remember that not that long ago plastic bags were everywhere and were being used by everyone,” says Lee. It took people power and it took action by grassroots organisations like The Rubbish Trip, Para Kore and Zero Waste Network and support from Greenpeace and that is how the plastic bag campaign was won.
“We just need to keep using that power and collectively telling the government what we want and how we should do it.” We can amplify voices like Lay Peng’s and tell the government we just don’t accept this, we don’t want to send our rubbish to Malaysia in the same way we said we don’t want to rely on plastic bags.
“We can start chipping away at all these problems and tell the government, ‘this is a great start but let’s be bolder, let’s be more ambitious and let’s be more urgent.’ And we will win again.”
If you missed the webinar, you can watch it here:
A number of questions were asked during the webinar and we were unable to answer them all live, so our panellists have provided answers to some of them below.
Can we rely on politicians (in Aotearoa or around the world) to introduce legislation that puts real pressure on companies to comply with zero-waste strategies?
Not without pressure from all of us to do so. We should be putting pressure on politicians to do the right thing. Politicians don’t have all the answers and participatory democracy is our right, perhaps even our duty. We have lived experiences and desires for our environment, our communities and our planet that need to be heard. There are also individuals and organisations that hold valuable expertise in matters of waste and plastic pollution that can better inform policies and legislation that upholds a zero waste hierarchy. We’ve seen how our public pressure works with getting the plastic bag ban, and the Govt’s recent plan to phase out many single-use plastics. We need to keep pushing for stronger measures and faster action.
Is there any legislation existing or planned to reduce and/or stop importing plastic items when there are better alternatives available? (especially made in Aotearoa)
The waste strategy consultation paper released last Friday has raised as an option a start to putting import restrictions on stuff we ban under the Waste Minimisation Act (WMA). The power to ban already exists, it’s just that the WMA power doesn’t extend to import restrictions so it hasn’t yet been done. This is why the consultation period is really important, to make sure that we’re advocating for addressing the problem at the source – extraction of resources and production of plastic – and that our strategy upholds the waste hierarchy. If you’d like to know more, see p67 of the Taking Responsibility for Our Waste MFE consultation document.
How can we look to transition away from single-use plastic in these harder sectors of our society like Healthcare?
In some instances, like healthcare, single-use plastic is useful. Greenpeace Aotearoa is committed to waste minimisation but acknowledges that there are areas that single-use plastic is the best option. We are focused on eliminating the vast bulk of plastic waste that comes from unnecessary plastic products. That’s part of the reason we think banning single-use plastic drink bottles is the logical next step. It deals with a prominently found piece of litter, but it also can be the pilot that demonstrates how reuse / refill systems can be adopted and work. We can begin to build from there, phasing out more plastic packaging and building all sorts of alternatives to single-use / disposable items.
Where is the move for refunds on bottles and cans currently?
Based on the Ministry for Environment website, the container return scheme is being looked at by the ministry before it will be put before the Minister and Cabinet for consideration. Then it will go out for public consultation. Currently the website says ‘later in 2021’. We are supporting Kiwi Bottle Drive’s call for a comprehensive bottle refund scheme.
Call on the NZ Government to ban unnecessary single-use plastic bottles* in NZ, and to incentivise reusable and refillable alternatives.
