Have your say on proposed amendments to waste legislation

Closes 1 Jun 2025

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Creating a modern, effective compliance regime

We are interested in your views on modernising the existing compliance regime.

There are 2 questions that can be answered within this section.

You can read this section and the questions either:

Read about creating a modern, effective compliance regime - HTML format

Proposal

Introduce a fit-for-purpose compliance regime for the waste regulatory system to bring it into line with good practice already in use in other legislation. This will define the regulators’ and other organisations’ legislative obligations for monitoring and compliance activities.

Implement an amended CME framework to improve on the littering and other mismanaged waste compliance currently provided for under the Litter Act.

Enable regulators to share information for CME purposes.

Current situation

The regulatory environment for waste is varied and involves a cross-section of New Zealand society, including controlling the actions of landfill operators, manufacturers, retailers and the public. Currently, the WMA provides limited CME powers. Prosecution is the main means to address non-compliance, with maximum fines of:

  • $100,000 for all main offences at a central government level
  • $20,000 for a breach of bylaws.

The WMA does not provide for offences related to non-payment of the levy, although it does allow for recovery of unpaid levies as debt through court action. For other offences, prosecution through the Courts is the only enforcement option, which is limiting because:

  • prosecution can be a disproportionate regulatory response to non-compliance
  • if non-compliance falls below the prosecution threshold, no consequences can arise from breach of the WMA.

Data

Recent amendments to regulations6 made under the WMA have resulted in more data coming to the Ministry through reporting from:

  • operators on the content of waste disposed
  • territorial authorities on the management of waste in their districts.

However, there are limitations to how this information can be shared between regulators.

6 The Waste Minimisation (Information Requirements) Regulations 2021 and the Waste Minimisation (Calculation and Payment of Waste Disposal Levy) Regulations 2009.

The proposal in detail

A fit-for-purpose compliance regime for the regulatory system

A modern compliance framework contains a range of interventions at different levels, to ensure the regulator has the right tool for the right level of offending. Table 2 outlines our proposal: a four-tiered graduated response model that recognises different levels of offending and aims for broad consistency across the framework.

Table 2: Key tiers for proposed general compliance framework

Tier 

Explanation of tier 

Tier 3 

Most severe and intentional offending with significant risk of harm (eg, deliberate levy avoidance, fraud, large-scale or high-harm illegal dumping).

Tier 2 

Mid-range offending where most severe penalties may not be appropriate.

Tier 1 

Low-level disciplinary interventions such as formal warnings for small infringements, designed for minor offending (eg, illegal plastic bag use, small-scale littering). 

Cautionary tools 

Warnings and directive notices to place members of regulated community ‘on notice’.

The amended CME framework will define offences, and establish infringement offences and maximum fees, pecuniary penalties and prosecution. It will also set maximum individual penalties and include defences, rights of appeal, review processes and complaint mechanisms, to ensure adherence to natural justice. The specifics of these matters will be developed at a later stage, so are not part of this consultation.

It is proposed the infringement fees will be paid to the enforcement body that issued the infringement.

Data and information sharing

We propose to clarify data-sharing provisions, to enable data to be shared between regulators for CME and EPR purposes.

20. Do you agree the regulator should have greater powers to receive data, including the ability to share with other regulators and the Ministry?
21. Do you support the proposed tiered approach to the compliance tools and sanctions?
Please share any further thoughts or ideas on these proposals on creating a modern, effective compliance regime: