MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release

Thursday 1st February 2007

Minister Launches Plastics Industry’s Design For The Environment Guidelines

The Hon David Benson-Pope, Minister for the Environment, officially launched Plastics New Zealand’s Design for the Environment Guidelines at the Plastics Centre of Excellence - Auckland University’s Tamaki Campus today.

“The production of these Design for the Environment is a first for New Zealand industry, leading the way for plastics with specific guidelines on packaging, electronics, construction and agriculture. Plastics NZ wanted guidelines that reflect plastic manufacture and use in New Zealand as well as assisting our companies to meet the requirements of their export markets” said Terry Mischefski, Chair of the Environment Committee of Plastics New Zealand. “These guidelines are now being used as part of the training programmes to up skill and educate the plastics industry in New Zealand”.

“By using Design for the Environment principles a good-quality, desirable and cost-effective product can be developed that also has a reduced impact on the environment, while in turn assisting companies to remain competitive and able to compete on the world stage.

An example of this is the work undertaken by Viscount Plastics Ltd on the RECRATE 47 Deep Nest Crate. It has achieved a 95% increase in load capacity. What was two truck loads is now down to one for the grower hiring the new crate. This means crate hire and transport companies are more able to hold costs against oil price rises. Compared with the standard RECRATE 47, the Deep Nest requires 4% less material and 27% less energy in its manufacture.

Plastics New Zealand Incorporated is the leading trade association that has represented the plastics industry of New Zealand for over 60 years. Over the last three years the Plastics New Zealand Environmental Best Practice Programme has found simple and effective methods to encourage companies within the New Zealand Plastics Industry to look at the way they manage their businesses from an environmental perspective. The focus is cleaner production, extended producer responsibility, resource recovery, and design for the environment.

The Best Practice Programme is generously supported by the Minister for the Environment’s Sustainable Management Fund and with the continuing support the programme is now in its fourth year.

Plastics New Zealand and the members it represents have shown their commitment to New Zealand and the environment in which they operate within” says David Brittain current President of Plastics New Zealand. “For the last 9 years Plastics New Zealand has employed an Environmental Manager to look after and represent the needs of the industry through such initiatives as the Plastics New Zealand Sustainability Initiative, the 2004 Packaging Accord, the Annual Mass Balance Survey and the development of the Best Practice Programme. These new Design for the Environment Guidelines is another step in the journey to ensure that the growth and success of plastics based technology in New Zealand is undertaken in an economically, socially and environmentally responsible manner”.

Plastics New Zealand currently has over 200 member companies and is based on a representative committee structure. Member companies include plastic product manufacturers, recyclers, and suppliers of raw materials, machinery and services to the industry. The organisation represents over 75% of the New Zealand plastics industry which has a turnover in excess of $2 billion per year and employs more than 8000 people.

Recent developments undertaken by Plastics New Zealand for the industry include the development of a Diploma in Design and Specification of Plastics to assist in the training and up skilling of the industry, the establishment of CPIT in Christchurch as a training facility for the South Island and the cultivation of a joint venture between the Plastics Industry, Government and University of Auckland to develop a Plastics Centre of Excellence at the University’s Tamaki Campus as a research and development facility for the industry.

A copy of the Design for the Environment Guidelines can be downloaded from Plastics New Zealand website www.plastics.org.nz

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