New Zealand had been sending 15 million kilogrammes (33 million pounds), worth around NZ$21 million (RM58.8 million), of waste per year to China, mostly paper and plastics that were now piling up as waste companies scrambled to divert it to processors in Southeast Asia.

“The ban has had a greater impact than the industry expected and we need a coordinated response from central and local government, together with the waste and business sectors,” Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage said in an emailed statement.

The government plans to use its existing waste levy to invest in more onshore recycling plants, she added.

China, the world’s largest importer of plastic waste, has stopped accepting shipments of garbage, such as plastic and paper, as part of a campaign against “foreign garbage”.

The ban has upended the world’s waste handling supply chain and caused massive pile-ups of trash from Asia to Europe as exporters struggled to find new buyers for the garbage.

“We are also looking at options such as expanding the waste levy to more landfills, improving the data we have on waste including recyclables, and other tools to reduce the environment harm of products such as product stewardship, levies and bans,” Sage said.

Governments in the UK the European Union, and Australia have announced plans to confront growing waste as a result of the ban, with the British introducing a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles and the EU mulling a plastic tax.