Wet wipes can look like paper, but are often plastic. And as they essentially masquerade as paper, people treat them as such and end up flushing them down the toilet and discarding them in the bush. Wrongly flushed plastic wet wipes can block sewage systems or end up in the ocean. Once in the environment, plastic wet wipes are a hazard for wildlife. Once they do start to break down, the resultant micro plastics can even enter the food chain. Plastic wet wipes need to be banned and replaced with a 100% biodegradable product.

Hidden in the Akatarawa Forest is one of Wellington’s best kept secrets, a living treasure equal to anything found in our national museum, Te Papa. A forest of giant Rātā trees with trunks that rival Aotearoa’s iconic kauri tree, Tāne Mahuta. These living relics are undoubtedly national treasures that have been standing for centuries before the arrival of humans to Aotearoa. Remnant Northern Rātā are iconic lowland forest trees that are now rare as they are endangered by introduced possums. One of NZ’s tallest forest trees, healthy Rātā produce a blaze of red flowers in summer, rich in nectar that supports tui, bellbirds, kākā, geckos and bats with high energy food. Rātā trees begin life as a seedling in the crown of other forest giants like Rimu. Rātā roots descend and eventually, over a few centuries, strangle their hosts to form trunks of their own. Strangler trees are a special feature of tropical and warm temperate rainforests but Rātā trees stand out internationally as having some of the largest root trunks of any species on earth. They are truly spectacular! Among the Akatarawa Giants two of the known trees have a girth exceeding that of NZ’s most iconic kauri tree, Tāne Mahuta! We can build a Te Papa Tongarewa any day but it takes hundreds of years to replace one of these giants! If we drop the ball on possum control for just a few short years the real cost is centuries of living heritage. Most of the juvenile rātā trees have already been killed by possums in the absence of a regular control programme. Greater Wellington Regional Council has a custodial duty to ensure this unique living treasure is protected by sustained possum control to ensure its survival. These are the last such ancient giants on earth!! We implore the council to assign a sustained budget to protect the integrity of the Akatarawa Giant Rātā Forest!

New Zealand is making soft plastics into plastic fence posts and ducting! This is an amazing opportunity we have to create another life for plastics. The average New Zealander uses about 31kg of plastic packaging every year. We live in a throwaway culture but there are ways to reduce this. There are still ways we can educate people to distinguish the types of plastics as part of the plastics problem is about confusion. More than half of our population has admitted that they get confused what goes in the kerbside bin, and more than 40 percent of our recycled items end up in landfill due to the lack of education around recycling. This is why embedding a recycling culture in our community is important such as our plastic recycling bin. Soft Plastic Recycling Information: https://www.recycling.kiwi.nz/ Useful video: https://youtu.be/HdWRxSE2XJQ It's not that hard to recycle. Any plastic that can be scrunched into a ball means you can recycle it! Properly wash your rubbish to prevent contamination and create your plastics bin at home to bring with you next time you go to your supermarket to drop it off! Then WOAH you've just made a change! Please help my campaign out!

Everyone will have to put in their own in order to start a certain change. Here is, in fact, a proposal that would be a good start to engage the population in a simple way and without modifying their habits too much: Increase the number of days without a car to at least one per month. In fact, we believe that motivating the population to use non-motorized vehicles and means of transport more often has a lot of advantages such as limiting CO2 in the atmosphere, developing projects in favor of the climate and air quality in Brussels. It has long been established that global warming is on the increase due to excessive industrial activity by humans. For more than a century, the levels of CO2, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone on the surface of the globe have risen sharply. This increase is such that it today seriously disturbs ecosystems around the world. Whether it is to grow food, extract minerals, move around or simply produce energy, man pollutes the air / water by using more and more new technologies which seem effective to us but which in reality damage our environment and distance us from the goods of nature.

Get this: right in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis, the Supreme Court is scheduled to issue a ruling that could put 800,000 immigrant youth in danger of being deported and put their jobs at risk. Trump has tried to end the DACA program that protects immigrant youth and so far we’ve been able to slow him down. Now it’s up to the Supreme Court but their decision could not come at a worse time. Amidst this public health crisis, DACA recipients need to stay protected from deportation and continue working, driving, and providing financial and emotional stability to themselves and their loved ones. The Supreme Court should delay their decision until our country has made it through the COVID-19 crisis. The LAST thing immigrant youth and the entire country needs is more chaos and danger at a time like this. You may visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government.

The extraction, transport, refining and use of petroleum and petrol cause damage to people, air, water, land, animals and plants. Our health matters In cities around the world, air pollution from toxic vehicle fumes and emissions from dirty power stations is damaging our health. Together, we’re going to end the air pollution crisis once and for all. Because no-one should have to worry about what they breathe. We’re calling on politicians to do more to make sustainable transport an option for us all, and we’re pressuring polluting companies to clean up their ways too. Sustainable cities Do you want to live in a city where the air is clean to breathe, where public transport is cheap and convenient, and where roads are safe for pedestrians and cyclists? Cities should be built around people, not cars. To protect ourselves and the planet, we need to end the age of the fossil fuelled car. It’s already happening, but it’s not happening fast enough. That’s where you come in.

Human activity is overloading our atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other global warming emissions. These gases act like a blanket, trapping heat. The result is a web of significant and harmful impacts, from stronger, more frequent storms, to drought, sea level rise, and animal extinctions. No country in the world promotes its clean, green image as much as New Zealand, or is as reliant on its clean, green image for its exports and tourism. So in the green growth race, and it is a race, New Zealand should be out in front, leading, but we are not. There are a number of reasons why this is the case, not least of which is the view that New Zealand can have its cake and eat it too. Despite our steadfast promotion of New Zealand’s clean, green image, we continue to lag behind a number of countries in environmental indices and we continue to look for economic solutions from extractive industries such as coal and oil. The pandemic and looming recession provides a perfect opportunity for the New Zealand government to invest heavily in the green energy section, helping us become more green-friendly, self-reliant whilst creating thousands if jobs to help stimulate the economy. "Renewable Energy Job Boom Creates Economic Opportunity As Coal Industry Slumps" https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/energyinnovation/2019/04/22/renewable-energy-job-boom-creating-economic-opportunity-as-coal-industry-slumps/amp/

Tītīokura/Te Waka mountain range is a significant landscape for people of the wider Hawkes' Bay community and it also holds significant cultural and spiritual values for Māori. In 2007, claimant groups challenged the Council’s decision to grant Unison Networks Limited a resource consent to construct a wind farm on Tītīokura/Te Waka ranges. The Environment Court ruled that the mountain range is a significant landscape feature and the proposed wind turbine farm significantly adversely effects both the landscape and the cultural and spiritual values of mana whenua. On those grounds, the resource consent was overturned. In 2009, Unison challenged this decision, however, the High Court upheld the original findings of the Environment Court. Unison sold these consents to Meridian Energy in 2010 and in 2019 the Hastings District Council approved Meridian Energy’s proposal to build a wind farm on the Tītīokura/Te Waka ranges. Ngāti Hineuru are mana whenua on the eastern side of the maunga (mountain) and Ngāti Tu are mana whenua on the western side. The spiritual significance this maunga has for mana whenua has been judicially recognised and formed part of the judgement that stopped Unison from succeeding. Underpinning this judgement were the major contributions given by witness statements which explained that the maunga is rich in lore, history and spiritual significance for mana whenua and that the presence of turbines and other infrastructure would desecrate a place that is sacred to them. Tītīokura is wāhi tapu (sacred place) and an integral part of mana whenua identity. This is cited in Ngāti Hineuru pepehā (tribal saying) and waiata (song). The spiritual and cultural values linking mana whenua to the maunga are as strong and meaningful as they always have been. Meridian Energy is a State-Owned Enterprise, it is not lost on Ngāti Hineuru that the Crown has historically prejudiced their cultural values and it must be emphasised that this current wind farm proposal cuts at the heart of spiritual and cultural significance for Ngāti Hineuru. Ngāti Hineuru have settled with the Crown for breaches under the Treaty of Waitangi and as a result of the settlement the Crown issued protocols to promote good working relationships on matters of cultural importance to Ngāti Hineuru. It is time that you stop terrorising claimant groups who have opposed this and continue to oppose this but are forced to revisit this dispute. Stop assaulting mana whenua groups by persisting on putting your commercial activities above their cultural and spiritual values. We do not oppose wind farms, we do not oppose commercial activities. We oppose Meridian Energy’s wind farm proposal because a wind farm on the Tītīokura/Te Waka ranges has already been successfully rejected from claimant groups for the reasons given by the New Zealand Judiciary that a wind farm on this maunga significantly and adversely effects both the landscape and the cultural and spiritual values of mana whenua. These aspects remain the same. Build your wind farm somewhere else.

Transport is responsible for 39% of Aotearoa's carbon emissions, and measures to reduce pollution from high-emissions vehicles are a key step towards the urgent climate action New Zealand needs to take. The scheme is broadly supported by environment groups, the Productivity Commission, the Motor Industry Association, and New Zealanders across the country. If we are to ensure a liveable planet for ourselves and for future generations, every nation and every Government must take action to reduce emissions, and that includes a transition to a transport fleet powered by clean, renewable energy. New Zealand First has made a commitment to the Zero Carbon Act, and this must be honoured through backing the clean car feebate. The election is approaching, and New Zealanders prioritize environmental policies in deciding their vote. New Zealand First must honour their commitment to the Zero Carbon Act and support the clean car rebate.

Aotearoa New Zealand has a waste problem that we can’t recycle our way out of. Single-use disposable serviceware belongs to the outdated ‘take-make-dispose’ linear economy, which accelerates our global and local waste crisis, fills up our landfills to produce methane and toxic leachate, and increases litter pollution. Extracting natural resources to make endless streams of single-use items is also unsustainable in the face of resource depletion and climate change, which threaten the planet’s mauri (life-force) and our mauri as descendants of the planet. We need visionary personal, business and policy solutions that prevent and reduce waste in the first place, and that replace throwaways with non-toxic reusable alternatives that work for all people. These upstream solutions will create less waste and fewer greenhouse gas emissions than recycling, composting or landfilling. Transitioning to a circular economy won’t be easy; it makes sense to start with low-hanging fruit. While some single-use items remain unavoidable for some applications (such as certain medical contexts, accessibility needs or civil emergencies), most single-use disposable serviceware for food and drink is relatively easy to prevent if we choose to reuse. Many individuals, businesses and communities in Aotearoa New Zealand are already embracing reusables. We can take this further and mainstream reuse with Government policy that removes throwaway options and replaces them with scaleable and accessible reusable alternatives. We recognise that single-use disposable serviceware often has accessibility-friendly characteristics that enable the independence of people with access needs, including the disabled community, the elderly and young children. Reusable alternatives must balance environmental outcomes with the need to maintain and promote accessibility. Government and business must work meaningfully alongside people with access needs to design products and reuse systems that incorporate universal design principles to function well for everyone. For more information, see the Takeaway Throwaways campaign website. *The time to be bold is now. Ko tēnei te wā.* Until recently, phasing-out throwaway food and drink packaging and serviceware would have seemed radical. However, times are changing. New Zealanders want more action on waste. Banning plastic shopping bags was a first step. New proposals to phase-out PVC and polystyrene takeaway cups and containers prove the Government’s willingness to take action on waste. The time has come to be more ambitious: we must tackle the root of the problem, which is the single-use mindset, not the particular materials involved. The Government has a role not only in taking away a wider range of throwaways, but in boosting the availability and uptake of accessible reusables. When combined, these two actions have the power to mainstream reuse. Ultimately, we are all responsible as kaitiaki for Aotearoa New Zealand and the global environment we depend upon. With integrity, determination, and a collaborative and inclusive spirit we can transform how we serve food and drink ‘on the go’, move our country towards true circular, zero waste solutions, and cast ourselves as a bold, global leader committed to a healthier, greener, more caring and connected world. Follow the Takeaway Throwaways campaign and get involved: www.takeawaythrowaways.nz www.instagram.com/takeawaythrowaways www.facebook.com/takeawaythrowaways

This is a public health concern as well as a transparency concern. The council was happy with allowing the public to believe that Roundup was no longer being used in public spaces but this is not the case. We have a right to know which streets are still being sprayed and when. There are alternatives; the continued use of a probable carcinogen is inexcusable. New Zealand regulators are focussing on studies relating to glyphosate specifically, but it is also the combination of other chemicals, such as adjuvants, used in the Roundup formula that have the potential to make the final product even more harmful than glyphosate alone. There is no excuse to not be using the precautionary principle when it comes to public health. This time the typical kiwi 'she'll be 'right' attitude is not ok and the fact that New Zealand regulators think they are above those of many European countries who have already banned the chemical is disappointing and concerning.

This would help reduce plastic pollution on land and in our oceans, as well as save countless lives of birds, turtles, and many other wildlife species that come in contact with plastic debris. Procrastination won't help the next generation. Plastics are forever. We desperately need a change.