Too hard to recycle: Calls to ban some coloured plastic bottles

There's calls for companies to stop producing some coloured plastic bottles, like L&P, and if that doesn't happen for the Government to ban them as they're too hard to recycle.

1News has learnt many councils are sending the coloured PET bottles, which are categorised as a number one plastic, to landfill. That's despite the fact they're included in the Government's new recycling rules introduced in February.

There's nowhere in New Zealand that can recycle the bottles and while some larger councils like Auckland are able to send them offshore, many are struggling with what to do with them.

Waste and Recycling Industry Forum executive director Barney Irvine said "most of the time they're going to landfill".

"Look it will be disappointing to some people and it sort of goes to the integrity of the recycling system. This is not the outcome that any of us want to see."

At a recycling facility in Richmond there's huge bales of coloured plastic bottles gathering cobwebs, waiting for somewhere to go. Around 80 tonnes or three years' worth of bottles from the Nelson and Tasman regions is being held to eventually be sent overseas when a buyer can be found.

While it's not ideal, it's a best case scenario for smaller councils who are particularly struggling to recycle the bottles.

Queenstown Lakes District Council had to start accepting the bottles when the rules changed in February, despite the fact they're all sent to landfill.

"We pull out coloured PET as contamination and send it to landfill along with other general waste," the council said in a statement.

"Coloured PET is a low/no-value, low-volume product with a limited market. QLDC did not support the inclusion of coloured PET for standardised recycling for these reasons."

Waikato District Council said one of its three contractors hasn't been able to find a processor for the bottles.

"This material goes to landfill, until they have been able to identify a processor that can take their supply of coloured PET in the low volumes they have."

Larger councils with larger volumes are having more luck. Auckland Council's general manager of waste solutions Parul Sood said it is sending the bottles overseas but is working with central government to find a solution within New Zealand.

"Unfortunately it does come down to size in terms of the volumes that you might have and if it makes sense to actually put it with other commodities to send overseas for the material to be recycled."

The bottles we're talking about are the brown ones L&P comes in, brown plastic beer riggers, the green bottles some olive oil comes in, and so on. Essentially, anything that is categorised as "plastic one" that isn't clear. It's also called PET by the industry.

Clear PET is easier to recycle because it can be reprocessed into other clear items, which can be done in New Zealand. But the coloured PET goes a brown or grey colour when it's reprocessed meaning it can only be used for a limited number of items, which aren't in high demand.

These coloured bottles make up a very small proportion of what comes through recycling facilities. For example in Nelson/Tasman it's just 4% of the plastic recycling and in other areas which sort by hand it will be much lower.

Irvine said it's a matter of economics, particularly for smaller councils. "Compared to clear plastic bottles there are far fewer uses for these. So there's less demand, the volumes are much smaller and there's a whole lot of extra handling required, which adds to cost."

Ministry for the Environment waste manager Shaun Lewis said officials considered a number of factors when deciding which items would be included in the new recycling rules from February.

He stood by its decision to include coloured number one bottles, or PET. "Some of the bigger councils do have markets for those materials and therefore it was a more straightforward message for us to deliver to households."

Lewis said it would have been too confusing to include some number one items and not others. He also said the proportion of these bottles was very small and hoped they could be processed onshore in the future.

Under the Official Information Act 1News has learnt concerns were raised from within the Ministry for the Environment last year on this issue.

In July one staffer wrote to colleagues: "Any progress on getting more onshore coloured pet processing? Is this going to be a risk for kerbside standardisation?"

In February, after the rules changed, a staff member wrote to a council: "I hope you can bear with us as we try and build a recycling system while running."

The Ministry for the Environment said recycling facilities for these bottles in New Zealand are years away and couldn't give an exact timeframe.

Irvine said more should be done to reduce the number of these bottles in New Zealand.

"These items shouldn't be coming into the market if we don't have a solution for them. What we really need to see is more responsibility being taken by producers."

Irvine said if companies keep producing them, the Government should step in and ban them.

Lewis said some companies are already switching to clear bottles. "Our preference is always a voluntary move towards materials that are more easily recyclable and recycled onshore."

In a statement Coca-Cola said last year it switched its Sprite bottles from green to clear, which has now happened in more than 100 countries.

"As part of our efforts to increase the recyclability of our bottles, we are actively exploring options to transition L&P from coloured plastic bottles to clear plastic."

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