AUCKLAND
Air Cargo Inspection Facility, 21 Tom Pearce Drive, Manukau 2150
PO Box 73 003, Auckland Airport, New Zealand
Phone: 09 927 9000 All general enquiries phone: 0800 428 786
Email: [email address], Website: www.customs.govt.nz
14 February 2019
Ref: OIA 19-026
Mr Dylan De Rungs
By Email: [FYI request #9314 email]
Dear Mr De Rungs,
Request for Information Under the Official Information Act 1982
Thank you for your email to the Ministry for the Environment, which was transferred to the
New Zealand Customs Service (Customs) on 1 February 2019, for a response. Your email has been
treated as a request for information under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act). You have
requested data relating to:
“…all info on where our waste is actually going namely, plastic bottles.
I am requesting the name(s) of all receivers of our plastic bottle waste in the year 2018 and,
How much they paid for them.”
In response to your request, attached is an Excel spreadsheet covering the export of plastic waste and
scrap for the 2018 year period. The spreadsheet provides the description of the goods, tariff
description, country of destination, statistical unit and quantity, and the value of the goods exported.
The overseas importer is not currently a searchable field so this information is refused as provided in
section 18(f) of the Act, as the information cannot be made available without considerable collation or
research.
By way of explanation when exporting goods, they are classified in accordance with the
New Zealand Working Tariff document. Four tariff items under tariff heading 3915 cover waste and
scrap plastic:
3915.10.00.00G
polymers of ethylene
3915.20.0000L
polymers of styrene
3915.30.00.00D
polymers of vinyl chloride
3915.90.00.00F
other plastics.
These tariff items cover all plastic waste and scrap. There is no tariff heading specifically relating to
waste plastic bottles.
If you are dissatisfied with the information provided, you have the right to seek an investigation and
review of the decision conveyed to you in this letter, by way of a complaint to the Ombudsman under
section 28(3) of the Act. Information about how to make a complaint is available online at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or you can phone 0800 802 602.
If you have any queries concerning this response, please contact the Correspondence, Reviews and
Ministerial Services team, in the first instance via email
[email address]. Yours sincerely,
Jonathan Morten
Acting Group Manager, Border Operations
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