A simple effective solution to promote recycling and reduce litter
Australians consume 5 billion drink containers each year. Container deposit legislation provides a direct financial incentive for people to recycle plastic, glass and aluminium containers rather than
litter or dispose of them in landfill.
Factored into the price of a beverage will be a 5 cent or 10 cent refundable fee paid to people who recycle the container or used to promote recycling.
Recycling not only reduces land fill and litter and pollution, but also reduces greenhouse emissions as it uses less energy to recycle a container than to manufacture it from scratch. Production of aluminium is particularly bad for climate change.
South Australia has had container deposit legislation since 1975. South Australia has a recycling rate of over 80% compared to that for the rest of Australia of approximately 40%. Drink containers make up 28.4% of litter in NSW, but only 9.6% in South Australia.
A poll showed 95% of Australians support refundable deposits on beverage containers.
The Greens have introduced container deposit legislation into State Parliament, but the Labor and Liberal parties refuse to support this simple and effective solution. This leaves local residents and councils to clean up the mess.
On 19th of July 2008, The Greens held our own container buy back to show how simple and effective container deposit legislation can be.
View the leaflet for this event.
Watch a video on the event:
Over 2000 cans and bottle were received from local residents and the streets of Marrickville were cleaner for a few weeks.
Action on Council
The Greens successfully moved this motion at Marrickville Council. The motion was amended and Council also wrote to the Minister for the Environment, Carmel Tebbutt.
We received this response from Minister Tebbutt. The response essentially says the state government will rely on the packaging business to self-regulate. This is a cop out and a fob to the packaging industry. Minister Tebbutt and her government should implement a container deposit scheme as a proven and effective way of reducing litter and waste and promoting recycling.
What you can do
Tell your local member, Carmel Tebbutt, that the State government needs to bring in container deposit laws.
Vote for your Greens candidates who will promote Container Deposit Legislation.
Check out Greens MP Ian Cohen’s Container Deposit page
