Stanford Erica; Parker DavidERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays): Thank you Mr Chair. I would like to chat with the Minister for the Environment for a while if he doesn't mind about the waste sector. We did get a briefing from the Associate Minister Eugenie Sage this year which was almost as good as having her in for Estimates but that's all right. I wanted to chat with the Minister about the problem with plastics in this country—well the problem that we have with waste in terms of the lack of overseas markets that we have to get rid of that anymore because of the fact that there are countries who have closed their doors to taking our waste; the fact that it was and is still being stockpiled in this country and in fact for the most part now those plastics are being sent to landfill because of the inability to recycle them here. Again with the Government's claim of being the greenest Government ever I was keen to hear what the plans are for onshore recycling in this country and what the Government have done in their aim to get rid of some of the plastics in New Zealand rather than sending them to landfill and specifically whether or not the Minister in the chair believes that we should be investigating a waste-to-energy option. I know that the Associate Minister is vehemently opposed to waste-to-energy but I'm keen to know whether or not this Minister believes that there should be some investment and thorough investigations into the technology that's available these days and whether or not the New Zealand landscape would suit a waste-to-energy scheme.Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): I think that it's true that most New Zealanders now realise that New Zealand hasn't done a particularly good job of taking responsibility for our own waste streams. Until very recently we used to send it overseas. Quite often it was poorly sorted and the waste streams were degraded with either glass being mixed in with plastic or paper or different grades of plastic being mixed together. As a consequence various overseas countries—in my opinion wisely—have closed their borders to those sorts of low-quality waste streams which has had the effect of forcing developed countries—like New Zealand Australia and various other countries—to take responsibility for dealing with their own waste streams and we're in the process of trying to advance plans to do that.The Associate Minister Eugenie Sage has already made significant steps during this three-year term—including banning single-use plastic bags—and has advanced various other projects to advance better dealing with waste and she has more announcements planned soon in that regard. It's also notable that some of the options being explored are being funded by the Provincial Growth Fund.There's also decisions being taken to over time increase the waste levy—which has not moved for a long time—to create an additional pool of money for both central and local government to use to better manage those waste streams. I would be quite hopeful that in the future in the years to come we're actually going to do a lot better in that regard. I know that Minister Sage as well as myself have inspected some of the facilities overseas in order to get an idea as to how much better things can be done than is currently the case in New Zealand.Erica Stanford: Waste-to-energy?Hon DAVID PARKER: If I could just in respect to the waste-to-energy there may be some small residue at the end of that that it is wise to use for energy. But the better course is to reuse as much of it as possible rather than draw more oil out of the ground convert it into plastic and send it into the air with climate change effects.