Presented as part of Technology Transfer Seminars 2025

Lyn Mayes, The Packaging Forum

Lyn Mayes established Mad World in 2001, to build networks and collaboration between the private sector, NGOs and local and central government to improve New Zealand’s environmental performance. She set up the Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme in 2015 for The Packaging Forum and is also sustainability advisor to the Food & Grocery Council. She is an external appointee to the Board of the Association of Metal Recyclers, a Board member of Be a Tidy Kiwi and immediate Past Chair of the Government appointed Auckland Conservation Board. Lyn was awarded a Kings Service Medal for services to conservation in the 2025 New Years Honours.

Innovation and diversification key to soft plastic recycling

We are approaching a decade of soft plastic recycling in New Zealand and bread bags make up 8% of what is collected from consumers. The bakery industry is playing a part in making it happen here, says Lyn, which is good news. But is our soft plastic recycling scheme sustainable? And what can we do to future proof it?

Soft plastic (plastic you can scrunch up into a ball) has no inherent value, so the scheme has to pay the cost of recycling and incentivise businesses to take on the risk of recycling soft plastics to make new products. A few figures to put it into context: In 2024, 737 tonnes of soft plastic was repurposed into posts. 87% of the population has access to soft plastic recycling.

Lyn emphasised the need to increase processing capacity – the scheme only collects what can be repurposed. They do not store it or export it. “We have to create demand. If people aren’t buying the products made from what we collect, the scheme will stop.” Innovation and diversification are key. Research into new and emerging technologies is needed to broaden the range of reprocessing options.

Convenience also needs to increase – kerbside recycling is not available at the moment but a trial underway in Nelson is proving that this would work through its incredible results – 3.48 tonnes after ten collection rounds (20 weeks) from only one thousand households! Change can also be driven by introducing mandatory producer responsibility for plastic packaging. By moving costs onto producers and with industry managing it, not councils, change may happen faster, but a mindset change is needed here first.

Presented as part of Technology Transfer Seminars 2025

Dr Roger Robson-Williams, Plant & Food Research Limited

Dr Roger Robson-Williams is a sustainability professional and scientist, with over 25 years’ experience of leadership in food system R&D. He is responsible for leading sustainability at Plant & Food Research Limited and has an advisory role in sustainability at AgResearch. Roger is also a member of the Sustainability Sub-Board of NZTech.

What’s good for nature is good for business.
Sustainability in business isn’t just a “nice to have”—it’s essential. Even if you don’t buy into the moral imperative, there are strong business reasons to take sustainability seriously. And understanding the global macro context can help to give meaning to and encourage our actions.

So, it was fitting that Dr Roger Robson-Williams began a seminar on sustainability by painting a big picture, which he described as “grim”, but with the assurance that there were some positive insights and a call to action to come.

Roger highlighted that modern society’s consumption has surged since the discovery of fossil fuels, improving lives but depleting resources. “We’re running out of stuff on a planet with finite resources. The earth’s capacity to deal with the waste we create is pushed to tipping point.”

Roger introduced planetary boundaries – the key life supporting systems of the planet that allow us to live comfortably. Based on “The Planetary Health Check” – the most comprehensive, science-based global initiative dedicated to measuring and maintaining the Earth system – these boundaries identify nine critical earth systems that support civilization as we know it. The last fifteen years have shown just how far we are pushing these systems – we are in the red for a least six of the systems.

Closer to home, a New Zealand Ministry for the Environment commissioned report showed our contribution to transgressions in five of those boundaries, especially for nitrogen and phosphorus, where we are greatly exceeding our fair share, and for climate change. An Environment Aotearoa report in 2022,which includes samples and measures to find indicators of environmental health, frames people as part of the environment and a key leverage for environmental change. “We’re in a strong position to address this issue, but all indicators back up the boundaries stories – everything is heading in the wrong direction.” One piece of good news Roger showed was that ozone depletion is reversing because of international action.

Between 2007 and 2017 climate change related floods and droughts cost the NZ economy $840m. It is estimated that if we manage to limit global heating to 2 degrees by 2050, we are still looking at a 4% reduction in global GDP. 3.2 degrees could be as much as an 18% reduction. But most sobering of all, risk assessors see these impacts as massively underestimated and, in their estimates, a 3 degree increase by 2070 would halve global GDP and lead to global economic collapse.

Roger’s key message is that it’s cheaper to act on sustainability now. Mitigations that seem costly now will be far less expensive than future damages. He urged us to see sustainability not as marketing or compliance, but as essential for business survival. What’s good for nature is good for business.

So, what can individuals and businesses do? Roger emphasised the need for everyone to feel empowered and capable of making a difference. He outlined the business case for sustainability:

Resource Efficiency: Conduct energy assessments and implement recommendations to achieve significant savings.
Staff Retention: Younger employees value sustainability policies.
Risk Management: Mitigate risks like energy price volatility.

To get started, focus on your most significant negative environmental impacts and understand what you can do about them. Make rational business decisions—avoid greenwashing and prioritize the big issues.

Roger recommended the Future-Fit Business Benchmark, a science-based framework that provides a numeric score to help businesses understand their biggest impacts and quickly act. It helps track progress, plan, and prioritize sustainability efforts, embedding practices like renewables, living wages, and greenhouse gas emissions reduction into business operations. Plant & Food Research Limited and AgResearch have both adopted the Benchmark along with many other businesses in the Asia Pacific region.

Roger also recommended an emerging methodology called Planetary Accounting, which translates the Planetary Boundaries concept into Planetary Facts that can help inform consumers about the true environmental impacts of the products they choose.

It takes courage to transform and go beyond profit, small gestures or the hope that technology will save us, but the cost of inaction is far greater.

Thank you to everyone who attended the Technology Transfer Seminars in Auckland (in person or online)  and Christchurch.