What the government's doing about waste

The government sets the direction of waste management and minimisation in New Zealand, through legislation, policies and other initiatives. You can always find out what it's working on at the website below.

What the government is doing about waste | Ministry for the Environment

The government plans to:

  • improve household recycling and food scraps collections to make it easier for people to divert food scraps and recycling from landfill
  • phase out more hard-to-recycle single-use plastics
  • further increase the waste disposal levy   
  • increase investment in waste reduction initiatives and infrastructure
  • reduce construction and demolition waste 
  • improve the management of contaminated land  
  • develop a strategy for improving compliance, monitoring and enforcement of the Waste Minimisation Act 2008
  • address problems with individual products and materials through product stewardship schemes. Tyrewise was rolled out in 2024 to deal with end-of-life tyres. Now schemes are being developed for 5 other priority products: plastic packaging, e-waste and large batteries, agrichemicals, refrigerants and farm plastic.

The government's recently completed work includes:

  • standardising kerbside collection systems across the country
  • banning some single-use plastic items
  • updating the waste strategy for Aotearoa New Zealand
  • increasing and expanding the waste disposal levy
  • changing the way national data is collected, to improve the quality and availability of the data.
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