Working paper: Regulating products, production, and consumption for a circular economy in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

This working paper explores the legislative tools for product regulation and business model transformation that could help the New Zealand Government accelerate uptake of circular behaviours at the top of the waste hierarchy (i.e. behaviours that reduce natural resource consumption and pollution, and allocate the resources we do use more efficiently). In practice, these are powers aimed at drawing down production and consumption, including incentivising business models to shift from individual ownership and disposability, towards sharing/service-based models, product durability, and reuse.