The Recycling Leadership Forum (RLF) was established last year to bring together the brand owner, retail, packaging, food and grocery, recycling, and local government sectors.
The Recycling Leadership Forum’s Term One Annual Report is a comprehensive progress report which updates the Minister for the Environment, Hon Penny Simmonds, on the Forum and subgroups’ work to date and direction as of May 2025.
It provides expert advice and information to the Ministry for the Environment and the Minister on improving the recyclability and recovery of packaging materials.
The RLF’s focus has been on developing solutions for packaging not included in the standard kerbside recycling materials. Term one focused on three priority materials: Aerosols, Caps and Lids and Secondary Material Thresholds for Complex Fibre Packaging.
The NZFGC Board has appointed the Chief Executive and Chair of the NZFGC Sustainability Committee as the two brand owner representatives to the RLF.
Earlier this year, Mike Pretty took up the position of Chair of the Sustainability Committee following Cameron Scott, so he now joins Raewyn Bleakley, Chief Executive of the NZ Food & Grocery Council NZFGC, as the second representative.
“I chair two RLF subgroups, Aerosols and Secondary Material Thresholds for Complex Fibre Packaging,” said Bleakley.
“These began as NZFGC working groups and have since been incorporated under the RLF and broadened to include cross-sector representation. I would like to thank members who have contributed to these subgroups, bringing our industry perspective to all discussions.”
The Report details the options considered by each subgroup, the initial recommendations, and the further work required between now and March 2026 to provide final recommendations on the targeted materials to the Minister.
Bleakley added that the NZFGC was working on behalf of members to find solutions that allow household and personal care aerosols, and metal and plastic caps and lids, to be reintegrated into kerbside collection, or to find viable and sustainable alternative collection systems.
In terms of secondary material thresholds for complex fibre, the report proposes a staged approach to resolving this issue, with Stage 1 being the recommendation to accept over 95 percent fibre single-sided coatings as recyclable and for these materials to be reintegrated back into the PREP tool.
Officials are conducting further work on this and will report back as soon as the outcome is known.
The RLF is working towards developing final recommendations on the materials discussed in the report, as per the direction set out by the Minister, ahead of March 2026. This work is expected to include a cost-benefit analysis of recommended options.
The recommendations represent the views of the RLF and are not government policy. When final recommendations are reached, the Ministry and Minister for the Environment will then consider the findings in full. Targeted engagement would be undertaken ahead of any proposed changes to the standard materials gazette notice.
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