Jacinda Ardern is defending the Government's latest investment in recycling as an urgent solution to an urgent problem.

A $40 million pledge has been made for measures to converting plastic waste into new products.

Greenpeace says the Government should be focusing on further reducing plastic waste, rather than processing the waste that's being created.

But the prime minister told Mike Hosking New Zealand needs an urgent solution for its recycling crisis.

"We're relied on either putting it into landfill or shipping it. The countries we've shipped it to don't want it anymore. We don't have some of the ways of dealing with waste within New Zealand."

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