Nelson set to trial collecting soft plastics from the kerbside

• A kerbside collection of soft plastic packaging is being trialled in Nelson - for the first time in NZ
• It's hoped more than 1000 households will take part in the trial - which is being funded by The Packaging Forum
• The trial will run for six months, to determine if this collection model is economically viable and could be rolled out across the country

New Zealand's first trial to collect soft plastic packaging from the kerbside is being rolled out in Nelson.

Letters are being sent this week to households in more than 140 streets inviting people to register - with collections to start in early October and run for six months.

Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme manager Lyn Mayes said there had already been good participation in the voluntary recycling scheme in the region.

"What's going to be really interesting is to see what the uplift in the collections for Nelson is, at the moment we are collecting about 2.5 tonnes of plastic a month through the drop off systems in supermarkets but what we want to test is how much more we are going to get through by making it more convenient for people."

Under the current scheme, people drop are able to drop clean and dry soft plastic packaging in bins at selected supermarkets across the country.

Letters are being sent out this week to households in more than 140 streets inviting people to register for the trial and Mayes said they hope to have 1000 households signed up. Collections will start in early October and run for six months.

Similar trials run in the United Kingdom and Australia had shown an increase in the amount of soft plastic recovered, as people found it easy to recycle alongside existing collections.

"We have to learn from what other countries are doing and how they are making it easier for people to recycle their soft plastics."

Households that choose to participate will be provided with orange soft plastic recycling bags and asked to put their packaging and wrappers into the bag and put it out once it is full, for collection, inside the glass crate - which will be on a different day from the kerbside recycling operation as the current rules do not allow soft plastics to be collected from the kerbside.

"We are hoping that people will fill the bags really full before they put them out, which means we have the maximum coming through the system and we aren't just collecting half empty bags."

The soft plastics will be collected by EnviroNZ, bundled into bales and delivered to Future Post in Blenheim to be recycled into fence posts for vineyards and farms, as well as garden beds.

Mayes said Nelson had been chosen as a trial city because it was close to the Future Post plant, residents were already keen soft plastic recyclers and it had good support from the Nelson City Council.

"It is a really nice, localised little circular economy - plastics collected and recycled locally and hopefully coming back into vineyards in the area as fence posts."

Mayes said further trials would be done to determine the most cost effective and environmentally friendly method of collection for New Zealand.

Nelson City Council approved the trial earlier in the year and mayor Nick Smith said he hoped there would be less soft plastics sent to landfill as a result of having a more convenient kerbside collection.

Packaging Forum chief executive Rob Langford this is another example of industry taking responsibility and working collaboratively with councils to increase recycling rates.

"This is an important step to assess the costs and benefits of introducing new systems for collecting soft plastic packaging as New Zealand moves towards a mandatory plastic packaging product stewardship scheme. Under a priority product stewardship system, producers will be mandated to pay for the amount of plastic packaging which they place on the market with funding allocated to the collection, sortation and reprocessing of these materials.

"This will see investment in recycling infrastructure and importantly an increase in the plastic recycling rate which is urgently needed as New Zealand currently has one of the lowest plastic recycling rates in the OECD at just 17 percent."

Households not part of the trial are encouraged to keep utilising the soft plastic recycling bins placed in various stores.