Waste data in New Zealand

The Ministry for the Environment is working with local government and industry to gain a better understanding of waste minimisation and management in New Zealand. Key aspects of this work are:

Progress to date

There have been a number of initiatives aimed at improving the collection and aggregating of waste data over the last 10 years. These include:

While these reports and the underlying policies have resulted in improvements in data collection and/or provided a snapshot of waste disposal or composition in time, they have not succeeded in producing an integrated and ongoing system for generating and collating waste data.

Why is waste information important?

When collecting data of any type it is important to keep in mind the intended use of the information being collected. Some of the uses for waste data are to:

  • identify options for diversion from landfill
  • plan for waste management
  • develop appropriate and practical policy at a local and national level
  • evaluate the potential risks of waste disposal
  • measure progress that has been made in waste minimisation
  • track progress on the New Zealand Packaging Accord 2004.

Last updated: 1 November 2012