Drop in waste volumes reflects construction slump

The latest waste data isn’t the good news it first appears to be, says Barney Irvine from the Waste & Recycling Industry Forum. (Image: Barney Irvine).

Cécile Meier

Wed, 06 Aug 2025

The amount of waste generated across New Zealand dropped sharply last year, alongside a lift in the national recycling rate, new data shows. But the waste industry says the improvement is mostly driven by a construction sector slump, not a shift in behaviour by households or businesses. New data from the Waste & Recycling Industry Forum (WRIF), which represents most of the country’s large private waste operators, shows per-capita waste generation fell from 1,090 kilograms in 2023 to 880kg in 2024. The national recycling rate...

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