Open AccessTrashing Waste
Author(s) -
Hannnah Blumhardt
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
policy quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2324-1101
pISSN - 2324-1098
DOI - 10.26686/pq.v14i4.6545
Subject(s) - portfolio , minimisation (clinical trials) , business , engineering , public administration , waste management , environmental planning , operations management , political science , finance , environmental science , statistics , mathematics
Ten years on from the enactment of the Waste Minimisation Act 2008, New Zealand’s waste policy remains sorely neglected. Successive governments have left the act largely unimplemented, allowing market failures, path dependence and fragmentation to deepen throughout New Zealand’s waste and recycling system. In 2017 a new minister assumed the waste portfolio, declaring an intention to use the Waste Minimisation Act to reverse New Zealand’s ‘rubbish record on waste’. This article outlines a range of policy solutions available to the government, analyses why these policy tools have been underutilised to date, and proffers a roadmap for overcoming the identified obstacles.