Three recommendations to government.
Not a fixed blueprint, but a set of system levers that can be strengthened through co-design with policymakers, iwi, business, local government, communities, and the sectors already leading circular practice.
Regional capability only becomes regional productivity when national settings let it scale.
A region can build a food hub, but it cannot make government procurement create a reliable market for regional supply. It can build a composting or biogas facility, but it cannot make recovery cheaper than landfill.
It can establish repair and reuse services, but it cannot change tax settings that favour replacement, single-use and virgin materials. It can begin recovering batteries and other materials, but it cannot establish the national standards, product passports or producer responsibility needed to create viable secondary markets. And it cannot give investors confidence that the conditions supporting shared infrastructure will still be in place in the long term.
Plan it. De-risk it. Fund it. Make it last.
Business action alone cannot transform markets. It can demonstrate what’s possible, but without supportive policy frameworks progress stays fragmented and first-movers remain disadvantaged.
Coordination, alignment and certainty.
These levers are concurrent, not sequential. Coordination can begin while a framework is developed. The framework can identify where existing mechanisms are sufficient and where new tools are needed.
Expert Activation Group
Turns system gaps into an investable pipeline.
Circular Economy Framework
Maps how existing plans, responsibilities and levers fit together towards agreed targets.
Policy, planning & regulatory settings
Keeps the direction stable enough for people to invest time, capital and resources.
Establish a Circular Futures Activation Group.
An expert body that guides and coordinates industry leaders with prioritised taskforces, enabled by government and co-designed with industry, iwi/Māori, regions and research partners.
What it would do
Established with ministerial accountability, its secretariat housed in the Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport, working alongside MBIE, MFAT and MPI. The purpose is not simply to advise Ministers, but to build an investable pipeline that turns isolated projects into a coordinated national transition.
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01
Setting direction
Developing the evidence, frameworks and shared priorities that help businesses, iwi, councils, researchers and government act.
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02
Enabling collaboration
Supporting shared infrastructure, co-investment and coordination across sectors and regions.
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03
Advising on enabling settings
Identifying the policy, procurement, investment and regulatory changes needed to level the playing field.
Develop a National Circular Economy Framework.
A single set of levers, targets and responsibilities that joins up what already exists, rather than authoring another standalone document.
A great deal already exists and none of it is connected: regional waste minimisation and management plans, industry sector plans, the minerals strategy, research and development programmes, procurement rules, the National Infrastructure Plan, product stewardship schemes and regional economic development priorities.
Australia’s National Circular Economy Framework sets national targets and assigns responsibility across government, industry and states without replacing the plans already underway. It is the precedent this recommendation follows.
The role of the framework
Led by MCERT with clear roles for MBIE, MFAT, MPI and other relevant agencies, to set national priorities, responsibilities, sequencing and near-term actions. It would set out:
- The vision for New Zealand’s circular economy, including measurable targets.
- Where government will regulate, and where it will leave the market to lead.
- Where it will invest and on what terms, including how public procurement will be used as a demand signal.
- Where extended producer responsibility applies, and to which products.
- What standards and data are required, and who sets them.
Developed with mana whenua, with Te Tiriti as the foundation: partnership, protection and participation. That means Māori leadership in priority-setting; funding for kaupapa Māori initiatives and community-owned processing, repair, reuse, kai and nutrient infrastructure; measures beyond material efficiency including mauri, oranga and value retained in place; and protection of mātauranga Māori, with Māori data sovereignty built into digital product passports and material flow data from the outset.
Embed circularity in policy, planning and regulatory settings.
To give circularity clearer status in existing decision-making, with measurable objectives, funded actions, assigned responsibilities and review points.
Infrastructure is priced on duration. A processing hub, a reusable packaging company, a repair network, a land transition, a critical materials innovator and a recovery system all carry front-loaded capital and capability costs, with returns made over a decade or more.
An investor assessing these systems is asking whether demand signals, levies, standards and procurement rules will still exist to support their success in years to come. Where the answer is uncertain, the project does not get built, regardless of how strong the underlying economics are.
New Zealand’s circular settings have moved in both directions over the past decade. Whatever one’s view of any individual decision, the pattern itself is what gets priced: 45% of New Zealand’s sustainability innovators describe the policy environment as unsupportive, and only 18% describe it as supportive.
The remedy is not a new instrument for every gap. It is to give circularity clearer status in the decisions already being made: the Emissions Reduction Plan, the Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill, waste strategy and legislation reform, procurement standards, infrastructure planning and sector policy.
In each, circularity needs measurable objectives, funded actions, assigned responsibilities and review points, so that businesses and investors have the certainty to act for the long term.
101 countries already have a circular roadmap or strategy.
Thirty-three are embedding circularity into their trade architecture. For New Zealand exporters, circularity is becoming a baseline requirement for market access, not a point of difference.
| Country | What they did | What we can learn |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | An advisory group, then a national framework with binding targets, then Circular Australia as a permanent peak body, in about two years. Working toward doubling circularity by 2035. | The closest comparator on economics and geography. |
| Scotland | Circular Economy Act 2024 legislated targets; the 2026 strategy names transport, built environment, food, textiles and electronics as priority sectors; £16 billion of public procurement positioned as the market-making lever. | 56,000 people now employed in circular roles. Government procurement is a fast lever. |
| Ireland | A coordinated national strategy with dedicated investment and measurement; digital product passports and traceability named as enabling objectives. | Circularity framed explicitly as economic competitiveness. |
| China | A Circular Economy Promotion Law since 2009. The July 2026 five-year plan targets a 16% lift in resource productivity and an 8 trillion yuan recycling industry by 2030. | Our largest trading partner, progressively tightening resource recovery requirements. |
| European Union | Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation in force; digital product passports mandatory for batteries and textiles from 2027; a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism rewarding low-emissions circular production. | Current trade compliance our exporters must meet. |
| Brazil | A constitutional requirement that 30% of school meal ingredients are sourced from local family farms, supporting four million smallholders, plus tax credits for recycling supply chains. | A single procurement rule transforming rural food economies at national scale. |
Not another layer of activity.
Circular by Nature sets out a practical way to connect the work already underway, align the next set of decisions, and create the conditions for greater investment and collaboration. Done well, this is about connecting what is already happening, strengthening what is working, and creating the conditions for new ideas, businesses and value chains to grow.