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Plastic recycling is a drop of water in an ocean of plastic. > In New Zealand, soft plastics are mostly recycled into fence posts The latest (2025-01) officia

Plastic recycling is a drop of water in an ocean of plastic. > In New Zealand, soft plastics are mostly recycled into fence posts The latest (2025-01) official report[^1] I could found states that the recycling of plastics in NZ is poorly known. On page 135, it mentions the report "OPMCSA plastics research (2019)" as the reference in the domain. According to that 2019 study[^2], the plastics used each year weight more than 700k t. Much more, because this ignores packaged imports, construction and agriculture. 31% of plastics imported are LDPE (so around 170k t), which is mainly used for producing soft plastics. Out of those 600+k t/year, 380k t go to landfill waste, and 45k t are collected for recycling. Assuming generously that 50% of those intended for recycling are actually recycled, I'd estimate that 1.7 to 3% of the yearly NZ plastics are recycled. Here's a quote about soft plastics: In 2017, 365 tonnes of soft plastics were recycled – but a lack of recycling market for these plastics meant that in the following year, plastic was stockpiled whilst new onshore markets were developed and a percentage of non-conforming plastic was landfilled. 365 t of soft plastics recycled out of 170k t of LDPE! [^1]: https://environment.govt.nz/assets/publications/New-Zealand-National-Recycling-Rate-Issues-and-Options-FINAL-30-01-25.pdf https://environment.govt.nz/assets/publications/New-Zealand-... [^2]: https://www.pmcsa.ac.nz/topics/rethinking-plastics/quantifying-aotearoas-plastic/#summary-table https://www.pmcsa.ac.nz/topics/rethinking-plastics/quantifyi...

PlunderBunny 1y ago
My wording was poor - I meant to write "most soft plastics that were recycled, were recycled into fence posts". Not that most soft plastic was recycled. I'm not disagreeing with any of what you have posted. For reference, the 52 posts that I have on my property are constructed from more milk bottles and soft plastic than I will ever consume in my lifetime. It's a drop in the bucket, but it's significant to me.
- garbagewoman 1y ago
  Making fenceposts out of a mystery plastic sludge isn’t recycling, it’s downcycling
  - PlunderBunny 1y ago
    The plastics used aren't a mystery - the outer parts of the posts (the bit that's exposed) are made from milk bottles. The resulting product is something that is useful to me and to the other people that buy it. Without it, I'd buy a treated timber post, which also has an environmental cost (different trade-offs). Is it down-cycling when the resulting product is more useful that the products it was composed of?

PlunderBunny 1y ago

My wording was poor - I meant to write "most soft plastics that were recycled, were recycled into fence posts". Not that most soft plastic was recycled. I'm not disagreeing with any of what you have posted. For reference, the 52 posts that I have on my property are constructed from more milk bottles and soft plastic than I will ever consume in my lifetime. It's a drop in the bucket, but it's significant to me.

garbagewoman 1y ago
Making fenceposts out of a mystery plastic sludge isn’t recycling, it’s downcycling
- PlunderBunny 1y ago
  The plastics used aren't a mystery - the outer parts of the posts (the bit that's exposed) are made from milk bottles. The resulting product is something that is useful to me and to the other people that buy it. Without it, I'd buy a treated timber post, which also has an environmental cost (different trade-offs). Is it down-cycling when the resulting product is more useful that the products it was composed of?