8 March 2004

A container return scheme would help clean up Australia every day

Ratepayers in NSW must pay a bill as high as $150 million a year to prop up council recycling initiatives while industry contributes less than $5 million toward cleaning up the drink container waste it produces, Greens Councillor Keith Hughes said today.

“While the goodwill of volunteers in the local area on Clean Up Australia Day last week is applauded, the NSW Government should introduce a container deposit scheme to help prevent the rubbish getting there in the first place,”  Councillor Hughes  said

“The NSW Government has refused to introduce a 10-cent refund scheme on beverage containers, despite the advice of its own independent review that highlighted the massive savings to the community that would result.

“Container deposit legislation (CDL) would ensure that industry pays the environmental cost of its consumption, not the ratepayers of  the Bega Valley Shire,”  Cr Hughes said.

Greens MLC Ian Cohen, who is drafting a Private Members Bill on CDL, joined Cr Hughes to highlight the cost to the environment of the state government’s failure to introduce CDL.

“It is about time that industry accepted responsibility for the products they generate, not just at the point of sale, but throughout their lifespan. At the moment the environmental costs are added to the sale price, so the community ends up footing the bill while industry walks away,” he said.

Mr Cohen said that despite industry having failed dismally to meet the targets established under the (former) Waste Minimisation and Management Act 1995, the NSW Government is now claiming it can not act alone to introduce CDL.

“That is an extraordinary flick pass of the issue into the ‘too hard basket’. South Australian residents have enjoyed a very successful bottle and can refund system since 1978.”

Volunteers who took part in the clean up Australia in many points deserve this government initiative which would help protect the environment throughout the year, cut costs to ratepayers, and add to local employment.