COMMUNITY consultation on a future Victorian container deposit scheme (CDS) has begun with an expected implementation in 2023.
A container deposit scheme allows people who return cans, small bottles and cartons to receive a cash refund. When you buy a drink in a can, bottle or carton, you pay a small charge to cover recycling costs. Once you’ve finished the drink, return the empty container to a collection point and get your recycling refund. The drink container is then recycled and made into something new.
Drink containers make up almost half of Victoria’s litter, so it’s expected a CDS will cut litter, reduce waste going to landfill, and increase recycling. It is one of the first pieces of environmental legislation to focus on the ‘polluter pays’ principle, where beverage suppliers are responsible for funding a refund for returned drink containers.
If someone discards an empty container, they forfeit the right to the refund and someone else would benefit by picking it up and collecting that refund.
Victoria and Tasmania are the only two jurisdictions in Australia which don’t yet have a CDS. Tasmania is expected to introduce one in 2022.
The move has been welcomed by the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV), the peak body for local government in Victoria.
MAV chief executive officer, Kerry Thompson, said councils have long advocated for a CDS and are now keen to ensure the scheme’s design maximises recovery of containers.
“We know there is strong community support for a scheme in Victoria, with recent polling by Infrastructure Victoria finding 92 per cent of respondents in favour of a CDS,” she said.
“One of the top priorities now should be to ensure that the design of the scheme provides for a network of accessible and convenient collection points right across the state.”
Ms Thompson warned that a scheme which is both coordinated and controlled by the beverage industry would be conflicted, with the incentive to reduce costs by minimising the number of containers recovered too great.
The proposed CDS will include cans, small bottles, and cartons, on the basis that they’re the sort of drinks you buy when you’re away from home and are also the most commonly littered.
Not all drink containers are included. For example, plain milk containers, wine bottles, and spirit bottles won’t receive a refund. That’s because they’re normally drunk at home, and less likely to become litter and can be placed into household recycling bins instead.
However, according to Ms Thompson, the scheme should also include wine and spirit bottles, and material collected must go back into beverage packaging to achieve a true circular economy.
“Victoria has a great opportunity to learn from the experience of other states and territories and build a CDS that is the envy of the nation,” she said.
For more information on the scheme, go to engage.vic.gov.au/container-deposit-scheme.
