Chinanews, September 27. According to New Zealand's Tianwei.com, on September 27 local time, New Zealand Prime Minister and Labor Party leader Ardern announced a new environmental protection policy.
She said that if she is re-elected as prime minister, she will promote the elimination of disposable plastic products by 2025, including Apple label stickers, plastic tableware, disposable coffee cups and plastic handle cotton swabs.
Data map: Prime Minister Ardern of New Zealand.
According to reports, Ardern and environmental spokesperson Parker (David Parker) jointly announced the Labor Party’s waste disposal policy, including the establishment of a 50 million New Zealand dollar fund to research alternatives to disposable plastic products and provide More job opportunities.
According to the report, this is the first time that the New Zealand Labor Party has clearly banned single-use plastic waste schedules.
Parker said that this fund will be distributed to research institutions and companies in the form of gratuitous provision and loans for the development of treatment methods and alternatives for difficult-to-recycle disposable plastic waste.
"New Zealanders are proud of our clean and green reputation. The Labor Party is committed to taking the next step to protect our environment from plastic waste." Ardern said, "By 2025, we will phase out single-use and Plastic products that are difficult to recycle, such as beverage stirrers, disposable tableware, some plastic cups and lids, plastic bags, straws (except for the disabled), cotton swabs, and stickers on agricultural products, such as labels on individual fruits."
Ardern also emphasized that all of these disposable plastic products currently have non-plastic alternatives, and some of them can be eliminated before 2025.
But it will take a period of transition, and give companies some time to clear inventory and adjust product lines.
At present, New Zealand is one of the largest plastic waste polluters among the OECD countries. In 2018 alone, 781 kilograms of waste was generated per capita.
In addition, the plan also proposes to allocate 124 million New Zealand dollars to build waste treatment facilities.