Have your say: Reducing the impact of plastic on our environment

The government is undertaking a consultation on banning single use plastic items, and PVC and polystyrene food and beverage packaging, to reduce the impact of plastic on our environment by moving away from hard-to-recycle and single-use items.

Hastings District Council is undertaking a community survey to feed into our formal submission to Government on behalf of our District.  Our quick survey (below) is open until 8am Monday 2 November.  We will collate the results into our report for Council to adopt in December.

We appreciate your input into our survey. You can also make your voice heard by submitting individual feedback during the consultation period directly to the Ministry for the Environment before 5pm on 4 December 2020.

Plastic consultation survey

The consultation document from Ministry for the Environment seeks feedback on two proposals related to plastic design, use and disposal.

Proposal 1

The Government is looking to move away from hard-to-recycle plastics, starting with a phase-out of:

• Some polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polystyrene packaging
• All oxo-degradable plastic products (a type of plastic that contains an additive causing it to degrade quickly when exposed to light or oxygen).

This is part of a long-term shift toward a more circular economy for plastics where packaging materials are made of higher value materials that are easier to recycle.

Proposal 2

The Government is seeking feedback on a phase-out of some single-use plastic items.

Moving away from single-use items in the future will help to encourage reuse, reduce waste to landfill, and minimise harm to the environment from plastic litter.