2020/05/11 by Trisia Farrelly, Laura Green · 1 citation
Environmental Science · Engineering · #Microplastics and Plastic Pollution #Municipal Solid Waste Management #Recycling and Waste Management Techniques #Plastic pollution #Reuse #Plastic waste #Business #Per capita #Investment (military) #Government (linguistics) #Corporate governance #Pollution #Hierarchy #Natural resource economics #Environmental planning #Waste management #Environmental economics #Environmental science #Engineering #Economics #Finance #Political science
paper · pdf · doi:10.26686/pq.v16i2.6484
openalex publication_date 2020/05/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/10
The management of plastic waste is a global problem which currently lacks a global solution. As one of the highest per capita producers of household waste in the developed world, New Zealand has a key role to play in addressing the plastics crisis at multiple levels of governance. This article analyses the various policy options available to the New Zealand government and offers a series of recommendations, including prioritising policy and investment at the top of the waste hierarchy (refuse, rethink, redesign, reduce and reuse); linking plastic waste to toxicological risk and commitments to carbon reduction targets; implementing global commitments domestically; and supporting a proposed international legally binding agreement that captures the full lifecycle of plastics and regulates the transboundary flows of plastic pollution.