What have our sector group steering committees been up to?
Its been a busy start to the year for all the steering committees of sector groups and working groups. Here are some key updates:
Behaviour Change
- Many of you may have attended the hugely popular BehaviourWorks training organised by the committee, the second of which was delivered last week!
- The steering committee prepared a joint letter with the TAO Forum to the Minister for the Environment. The letter focused on two areas of concern:
- 1) Insufficient funding for behaviour change and education programmes, and
- 2) Potential reallocation of the local government portion of the levy.
Contaminated Land Management
- With the white paper on soil reuse being included in the Ministry for the Environment work programme, the steering committee is engaging with the wider sector on the topic and building support for further discussions with MfE on progressing the issue.
- The steering committee also recently hosted a successful networking event in Wellington.
Disposal to Land
- The steering committee has started the process for revising the Technical Guidelines for Disposal to Land.
Health, Safety & Wellbeing
- The steering committee is seeking to re-run the Trash Talk road safety campaign later in 2025.
- The committee is also progressing with the phase out of the KCTL programme, and is reviewing the Health & Safety Guidelines.
Organic Materials
- The committee is preparing a full campaign for International Compost Awareness Week – which will include events and a social media campaign.
- The committee also has a number of webinars planned around the Waste Hierarchy as well as policy around organic materials.
Product Stewardship
- The committee are preparing a submission for the Consumer Guarantees Amendment Act (Right to Repair Bill).
- In addition to developing their workplan for the 2025 year, the committee are developing a position paper of key issues and opportunities in product stewardship.
Recycling & Resource Recovery
- The committee produced some key messages for Recycling to emphasize that “It is worthwhile” that have been used for social media posts for Global Recycling Day and will be used for the Day of Zero Waste.
- The Construction Waste working group has been developing a communications campaign for October to raise awareness about the issues of construction waste and existing solutions for diversion from landfill.
Territorial Authorities’ Officers Forum
- The committee have been working to develop a white paper around the use of the Waste Disposal Levy and its importance in funding different activities for communities.
