New Zealand Prime Minister And Labor Party leader Ardern announced a new environmental policy on September 27 local time, According to the New Zealand Daily. If re-elected, she said, she would push for the elimination of single-use plastic products, including apple label stickers, plastic tableware, disposable coffee cups and cotton swabs with plastic handles, by 2025.

Ardern and environment spokesman David Parker reportedly announced Labor's waste policy, which includes a NZ $50 million fund to research alternatives to single-use plastics and create more jobs.

The report said it was the first time the New Zealand Labor Party had explicitly banned the single-use plastic waste timetable. The fund will be given free of charge and in the form of loans to research institutions and businesses to develop solutions and alternatives to hard-to-recycle single-use plastic waste, Parker said.

"New Zealanders are proud of our clean and green reputation and Labor is committed to taking the next steps to protect our environment from plastic waste." "By 2025, we will phase out single-use and hard-to-recycle plastic products such as beverage mixers, disposable tableware, some plastic cups and LIDS, plastic bags, straws (except for people with disabilities), cotton swabs, and agricultural products such as labels on individual fruits," Ardern said.

Ardern also stressed that all of these single-use plastic products now have non-plastic alternatives, some of which could be phased out by 2025. But it will take some time to transition and give companies time to clear inventory and adjust product lines.

New Zealand is currently one of the largest plastic waste polluters among OECD countries, producing 781 kilograms of waste per capita in 2018 alone. In addition, nZ $124 million has been proposed for the construction of waste treatment facilities.