Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage discusses plans to ban single-use plastic bags. (Video first published in December 2018)

Meat trays, takeaway cups, and fruit stickers are next in line for the Government's expanding plastics ban.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced in Auckland on Sunday the Government would aim to phase out another round of single-use plastics.

The Government earlier this year banned plastic bags commonly used in supermarkets. A similar approach will now be taken with packaging and beverage containers made from "hard-to-recycle" PVC plastic and polystyrene.

Meaning certain meat trays, takeaway food containers and coffee cups could soon be disposed of for good.

CHRISTEL YARDLEY/STUFF PVC plastic meat trays are among the hard-to-recyle plastics the Government is aiming to emliminate.

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* Why the Government is planning to ban plastic bags



Stuff earlier revealed plastic cotton buds, single-use plastic cutlery - items which both have biodegradable alternatives made out of bamboo - and non-compostible fruit stickers would also be targeted by new plastics bans.

Ardern has repeatedly said that the number one thing she receives letters about is reducing waste.

"Many New Zealanders, including many children, write to me about plastic – concerned with its proliferation over the past decade and the mounting waste ending up in our oceans," she said on Sunday.

"I share this concern for our natural environment – one that sustains our tourism, trade and our national identity."

GETTY Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announcedfurther plastics bans, on items like meat trays and takeaway food containers.

The announcement was timed with the release of a report, Rethinking Plastics in Aotearoa New Zealand, written by the prime minister's chief science advisor, Professor Juliet Gerrard. The report recommended a nationwide plastics action plan be put in place, to push the country to a "circular economy for plastics". "Plastic is everywhere and tackling the problem of plastic waste needs a systems change, a collection of adjustments – some large, some small – across all aspects of society," Juliet said.

Single-use plastic makes up 36 per cent of all plastic produced.

JOHN VEAGE/FAIRFAX MEDIA Single use plastic bags were banned earlier this year. (file photo)

The Government is keen to see this type of plastic not being produced in New Zealand at all, and only wishes to ban things for which there are decent more biodegradable alternatives.

Since the 1950s 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic has been produced and over 80 per cent of it has ended up in landfills or discarded into the environment.

New Zealand has serious problems with managing its waste, compounded by the recent decision of China to stop buying plastic waste.

On Sunday, Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage said: "A lot of this plastic waste doesn't need to be created in the first place."

"Our goal must be to make Aotearoa an economy where plastic rarely becomes waste or pollution."

MONIQUE FORD/STUFF A mountain of plastics at Wellington's Seaview recycling plant. (file photo)

The plastics report confirmed the Government's waste agenda, she said.

The Government have proposed raising the waste levy by up to $50 over the next three years, from $10 a tonne to $60 a tonne in 2023.

The Provincial Growth Fund has also allocated $40m for projects.