OPINION: We need a shake-up.
The Government needs to take on those responsible for producing plastic
So the Government is going to get rid of meat trays, takeaway coffee cups and fruit stickers.
It's a vague statement of intent at best. No date, no time frame, just a wishy-washy wishlist.
That's a shame. Imagine if they could find their big boy pants and a backbone and take on those big huas who are actually responsible for plastic taking over our society and our oceans.
I'm talking the likes of Coca-Cola, who according to a report by Greenpeace produces over 110 billion plastic bottles every year.
They do the over-priced water bottles too, all their bottles are recyclable but no one does it.
More than 70 percent of used bottles go to dumps and spend the next 500 to 1000 years decomposing.
Just picture that - Shakespeare's bottle might be out there somewhere.
It's bloody outrageous that we allow this to happen every year - never mind the single-use plastic bag that I used multiple times. This Government should grow some gonads and take on those who are truly at the heart of this.
Say to Coke 'we're going to bring back a deposit scheme' and put a price on each bottle - and return the bottles to get truly recycled and used and used and used again.
In 1929, 80 percent of all Coke bottlers had a recycling scheme - now you'd be lucky to find one or two.
Progress? What progress? It's a debacle.
We've got all the technology and know-how, but companies like Coke and successive Governments sat on their hands and watched as the bottles that could be recycled never were, because no one was encouraged to do so.
Indeed, the industry celebrated a 25-percent increase in water bottle sales two years ago.
Great, we made it. We have been part of the giant leap backwards.
If Jacinda Ardern is keen to have a nuclear moment, she could do worse than shake these guys up.
Duncan Garner is host of The AM Show.
