Benchmark moment in plastic revolution as cotton buds in the crosshairs
World Oceans Day is celebrated in Kaikōura with the unveiling of a bench seat made from recycled plastic bags and micro beads.
Plastic-stemmed cotton buds are to be pulled from supermarket shelves later this year as companies continue to clampdown on plastic products.
Foodstuffs, which operates New World, Pak 'n Save and Four Square stores, announced the new initiative on Friday to mark World Oceans Day.
The announcement comes as Foodstuffs presented a bench to Whale Watch Kaikōura, made from 16,000 recycled soft plastic bags and micro beads collected during a 2017 amnesty.
Cotton buds next to go as supermarkets continue to ditch plastic products.
Micro beads were banned in New Zealand after it became clear the small particles could end up in the ocean, where they could be eaten by shellfish, fish and seabirds.
Foodstuffs New Zealand managing director Steve Anderson said the company cared deeply about its community, its people and the planet.
"Foodstuffs is doing everything we can to reduce our environmental footprint and nowhere is it more evident about how much this matters, than this wonderful place of Kaikōura."
A bench seat made from recycled plastic bags and microbeads collected from New World, Pak 'n Save and Four Square stores is presented to Whale Watch Kaikōura to mark World Oceans Day.
Foodstuffs sustainability manager Mike Sammons said the waste treatment system relied on waste "settling" to the bottom.
"If it's a plastic item, such as a cotton bud with a plastic stem, it will float and that's where it avoids all the filtration in the wastewater plants and can end up out to sea.
"A lot of the marine ecology, such as the fish, will mistake them for food and they will consume them, and that's where they enter the food chain and obviously as humans we're dependant on seafood as well," Sammons said.
Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage on a whale-watching tour in Kaikōura on Friday.
Whale Watch Kaikōura general manager Kauahi Ngapora said the placement of the seat, overlooking a playground and the ocean, was special.
"Firstly, it looks over our tamariki ... who are the next generation. They will inherit what we leave behind and I'm certain they will be much better stewards of our environment.
"It also looks over the ocean that we have out here, and this ocean is special to all of us here and it will enable us to reflect on the damage plastic can have on this environment.
Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage attended the unveiling of the bench seat on Friday and said she was delighted at how quickly New Zealand businesses were tackling the waste challenge.
"The announcement that Steve has made this morning of moving to ban plastic-stemmed cotton buds, following on from some of the initiatives in the UK is quite a significant announcement.
"The new Government is moving to catch up, we've got quite a lot of work in the waste space but it's brilliant to see businesses taking initiative.
"I think there's been a wide spread recognition that we've got to change the way our economy operates, decouple economic growth from exploitation of nature."
Sage said New Zealand needed to move towards a circular economy, "where we take resources carefully from nature, we design them, we manufacture them, we can unmake them and we can use the materials in them to reuse and reuse and reuse.
"We need to design waste out of the system, nature doesn't do waste, we shouldn't either."
China stopped taking 24 types of waste and recycling items like plastic and paper from overseas earlier this year.
It was the biggest buyer of New Zealand's waste and recyclables.
Sage said this was a "big challenge".
"We need to process things more onshore and we need more markets for recyclable material," she said, noting the new seat was a prime example of using plastics to create another product.
Sage last week said Government was set to roll out a plastic bag ban "in the next few months".
On Friday, she clarified "a paper will be going to cabinet soonish", which would be followed by public consultation.
The seat was made using the beads from the old product and were blended with soft plastics by the team at Replas and MetalArt.
"I haven't unveiled a plastic seat before," Sage said.
- Stuff
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