In August 2022, the New Zealand Food Safety Science and Research Center published a resources page “to support the use of recycled packaging by New Zealand food and beverage companies.” The new page includes reports focusing on paper and plastics recycling and the concerns over migration of intentionally and non-intentionally added substances (IAS and NIAS, respectively) from recycled packaging into food and drinks. The information is tailored to the New Zealand market and partly addresses recent concerns from local brand owners that the country lacks specific standards for recycled packaging.
In addition to providing documents explaining chemical migration and NIAS in recycled packaging, the Center published guidelines for the use of recycled packaging. The guidelines can advise brands on what questions to consider when contemplating a switch of packaging materials and cover planning, risk assessment, technical feasibility, and iterative improvements.
Earlier in 2022 New Zealand’s Ministry of Environment consulted the public on deposit return scheme for drinks containers. Recent research on glass recycling in Europe and the United States found that recycling programs that separate materials, such as deposit return schemes, are one of the most effective ways of increasing the quality of recycled material (FPF reported). The increased effort by the New Zealand Food and Grocery Council announced in July 2022 to increase the use of an evidence-based standardized recycling label may also help consumers properly dispose of materials and increase the quality of recycling. The effort by the Grocery Council supports its commitment to the ANZPAC Plastics Pact, a larger collaboration to decrease the use of plastic and increase recycling across Oceania (FPF reported).
References
Food Safety Science and Research Center (August 1, 2022). “Recycled packaging.”
Food and Grocery Council (July 13, 2022). “FGC, APCO join to increase packaging recyclability in NZ.”
Mirosa M. and Bremer P. (2022). “Stakeholder perceptions on the challenges associated with the use of recycled food packaging.” New Zealand Food Safety Science & Research Centre (pdf)
Ministry of the Environment (April 29, 2022). “Te panoni i te hangarua – Transforming recycling.”
