Rubbish is mounting at small landfills across the country

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A lack of recycling facilities means NZ must continue to send plastics and other recyclables overseas and rubbish is mounting at small landfills across the country after China stopped accepting New Zealanders' plastic in January writes Madison Reidy for Stuff.

New Zealanders could pay a $140 per tonne tax to dump waste at all landfills across the country as piles of plastic mount.

Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage said increasing the waste levy from $10 per tonne and applying it to all landfills, not just 10 per cent of them, would help respond to China's refusal to process our plastic rubbish.

China banned imports of all contaminated plastic waste last year in a move dubbed the 'National Sword'. It came into effect in January.

Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage has set up a taskforce to respond to China's ban on accepting our plastic waste.

Sage said piles of recycling had mounted at small sorting stations. Larger recycling sorting companies had found capacity in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia to export New Zealanders' plastic waste to.

Rubbish is mounting at small landfills across the country after China stopped accepting New Zealanders' plastic in January.

Australia-based Visy Recycling, Reclaim, Green Gorilla, EnviroWaste and Waste Management are the major operators that collect and sort New Zealanders' waste.

A Stuff investigation into New Zealand's recycling industry earlier this year, revealed New Zealand recycling companies were bartering for space at processing facilities in other Asian countries following China's move.

Sage had set up a taskforce within the Ministry for the Environment to tackle the growing problem caused by the National Sword, she announced on Friday.