Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, has unveiled her plan for the overall goodness of her country.
In their upcoming electoral campaign, the Labour Party has pledged $50 Million New Zealand Dollar to eliminate single-use plastic materials and hard to recycle materials from the entire country by the year 2025.
The Labour Party of New Zealand is committed to eliminating single-use plastic, which includes polystyrene packaging, cotton buds, drink stirrers, produce bags, straws, and some cups.
Prime Minister Ardern is also pledging $50 million to go towards establishing a fund for businesses that will help find alternatives to the single-use plastic materials.
In a statement that was released by the Labour Party, Prime Minister Ardern said:
New Zealanders are proud of our clean and green reputation and Labour is committed to taking the next steps to protect our environment from the harm of plastic waste. Getting rid of plastics is one of the main topics children write to me about, so this policy is about ensuring we uphold our clean green image, reduce waste in our environment and create a future our children can be proud of. In our first term we banned single-use plastic bags, with over one billion bags estimated to have been removed from the environment. Already groups who clean up our coastlines are reporting finding fewer plastic bags on our beaches.
Incredibly, 2 thirds of the rubbish that was found on the beaches in New Zealand every year is plastic material.
This type of garbage is capable of wreaking havoc on the health and ecosystem of the local area.
It can also be the cause of aquatic animal deaths.
However, this ban will not be applicable to everyone.
People with disabilities will not be affected by this ban.
Jacinda Ardern said:
All of these items currently have non-plastic alternatives, and some we will be able to phase out before 2025. But we want to ensure that there is adequate lead in time and businesses are not put under any pressure to change out their products in the short term. Businesses were given ample notice to phase out plastic bag use and that went seamlessly. Many business are already using plastic alternatives and it’s likely that by signalling these changes we will see more businesses making the shift.
New Zealand will go into the general election on October 17, 2020.
The Labor Party is currently the front runners in the upcoming election.