Waste Minimisation (Waste Disposal Levy) Amendment Bill
New Zealand charges a small fee (called a levy) every time rubbish is dumped at a waste facility. This bill expands what that money can be spent on — including cleaning up polluted land, helping councils deal with rubbish after disasters like floods, and supporting environmental work like restoring rivers and wetlands. It also gradually increases the levy amount over the next few years. Most people won't notice a direct change, but councils and businesses that use waste facilities will pay slightly more.
What this affects
Tap a topic to see how this bill touches it — with the parts of the text it’s based on.
Money collected from rubbish dump fees can now also be used to clean up polluted land and restore rivers, wetlands, and other natural areas.
funding activities that reduce environmental harm or increase environmental benefits
Examples of the type of activities that reduce environmental harm or increase environmental benefits include catchment remediation works and funding to support the management of New Zealand lakes, rivers, streams, groundwater, and wetlands.
contaminated site means land where a contaminant is present, or is likely to be present… in concentrations that pose an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment
Progress through Parliament
Have your say
Submissions open once a bill reaches the select committee stage. In the meantime, you can write to your local MP about it.
Write to your MPBill text sourced from legislation.govt.nz (Parliamentary Counsel Office). Arapono’s summary and breakdown are drafted with AI grounded in that official text and reviewed by an Arapono editor for accuracy and neutrality before publishing. Arapono is non-partisan and takes no position on this bill.