WHAT DOES CONTAINER DEPOSIT REALLY MEAN?

In 2016 WA the current Premier made a shrewdly popular political announcement that we were in line to take on Container Deposit Legislation in June 2020. This is a liked policy in the general community and in countries and in other States, dramatically reduces littering. (According to Keep Australia Beautiful statistics in their National Litter Index , the plastic, glass and can beverage containers were all in the top 12 litter products in Australia.

Littering suggests they are of no worth. A Container Deposit Scheme (CDS) or Containers for Change the name adopted in WA, was finally adopted in October 2020. The scheme means we pay a deposit, 10cents, plus a small handling fee (2 or 3 cents), on the drink container when we purchase certain beverages , redeemable when we return to a designated destination. Now it is worth something, way more that its actual worth in the recycling system through its weight.

There are various locations to return approved cans, bottles and cartons and get the refund. Where these are, who refunds monies, where are they sent for recycling is decided by WARRRL (WA Return Recycle Renew Ltd ) a not-for-profit organisation created to set-up and run Containers for Change in Western Australia.

Why did it take so long if it has such community support?

We must never underestimate the power of large companies who manufacture these drinks and their resistance to the schemes. They have argued –

-Add to the cost: (not if we redeem the deposit),

-Put the local council verge side collection profits in jeopardy: (local councils are included in the scheme and their sorting facilities will actually have less wear and tear due to some product pre-sorting at collection centres)

-Big companies contribute adequately through contributions to public place recycling infrastructure: (These funds have come through the National Packaging Covenant for signage, education packs and bin lids etc in public places. According to Dr Denise Hardisty who studied ocean plastic pollution there was a marked lowering of pollution along the coast of SA where CDL has been in train for many years.)

-Mean an increase in infrastructure to deal with the separate collection systems: (Not sure why this is so as the material is dealt with either by existing systems or by community collection centres with limited requirements for more than balers or glass crushers)

The real success story would be…..

If we could duplicate some examples from European countries where the quality of the container was improved to a thickness and strength to allow for washing and reuse, we may be be indeed on a more progressive winner. Recycling plastics PET bottles happens mostly in Asian countries  and glass if collected cleanly (no contamination) can at best be sent to SA for recycling as glass. Both are a long way to go with lots of energy used for further processing into the next useful product. Currently glass coming from yellow top recycle bins in Perth, is crushed and going either to become road base or soil ammendment.

A local initiative Greenbatch is currently collecting plastics PET and HDPE with the intention of processing the material ready for recycling. PET is a plastic that used in 3D printers and this project is in the Greenbatch plan. How they link into the collections for CDS is yet to be determined.

In August 2019 the Prime Minister made the commitment to ban the export of recycling for many materials and products. https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/karenandrews/media-releases/greener-recycling-industry .

Such a policy does not mandate all manufacturing must occur in Australia, only that materials must be ready for reprocessing.

A discussion paper on CDS:

https://www.der.wa.gov.au/images/documents/our-work/programs/CDS/WA_Container_Deposit_Scheme_discussion_paper.pdf

What do you think are some creative alternatives?