After just two months, the NSW container deposit scheme is already collecting over 1.5 million containers a day. As the rest of Australia follows suit in coming months, Victoria will soon be the only mainland state without a 10 cents container refund scheme.
Plastic bottles can travel in currents for thousands of kilometers. We need container deposit schemes across Australia and we are going on a tour across Victoria with a 3m long Coke bottle in tow, calling for a 10 cent refundable deposit on bottles and cans. It will help reduce litter, increase recycling rates, decrease the contamination rate and provide great fundraising opportunities for charity and community groups, especially in regional areas.
We will travel around 2,000 km over 2 weeks. From Melbourne to Port Fairy, up to Mildura, across to Wodonga and back via Bendigo and Ballarat, passing through a host of other towns along our route. We'll talk at schools and connect with the charity and community groups that will most benefit from this scheme. We'll organise roadside clean-ups, throwing the containers we find along the way into the big bottle. At the end of the journey, we will deliver the contents of the big bottle to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews' office.
We have contacted MPs in each of the electorates to arrange a meeting, some have expressed interest, some have declined - call them and ask them to meet with us!
- Stawell: Louise Staley - (03) 5461 1255
- Warnambool & Port Fairy: Roma Britnell - (03) 5562 8230
- Horsham: Emma Kealy - (03) 5382 0097
- Mildura: Peter Crisp - (03) 5021 2828
- Echuca: Peter Walsh - (03) 5482 2039
- Wangaratta: Timothy McCurdy - (03) 5721 6155
- Beechworth & Yackandandah: William Tilley - (02) 6009 0808
- Bendigo: Jacinta Allan - (03) 5443 2144
- Castlemaine: Maree Edwards - (03) 5444 4125 (meeting confirmed)
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Ballarat: Sharon Knight - (03) 5331 1003
With your help we can get drink containers out of landfill and our waterways, and put money into the pockets of our charities and community groups! Come and say hi if - honk your horns if you see us! Here is our itinerary:
| 31 March - 1 April | Stawell |
| 2 April | Warrnambool |
| 3 April | Port Fairy |
| 4 April | Hamilton |
| 5 April | Mildura |
| 6-7 April | Echuca |
| 8-9 April | Beechworth/Yackandandah |
| 10 April | Bendigo |
| 11 April | Castlemaine |
| 12 April | Ballarat |
| 13 April | Back in Melbourne |
Actions and activities in each town are shaping up. Follow the shenanigans and latest news of the Big Bottle below and see how fast we are filling the Big Bottle with containers found alongside the roads.
> Visit the Big Bottle blog page
- The Stawell Times: A three-metre long coke bottle visited Stawell on Saturday
- Waste Management Review: Big Bottle Tour of regional Victoria for container deposit scheme
- The Standard: Boomerang Alliance brings big bottle to city
- ABC South West Victoria
- Good Will Nurdle Hunting
- ABC Mildura Facebook post
- ABC Mildura: Giant soft drink bottle tours Victoria to push for container deposit scheme
- Triple M Sunraysia
- Mildura Weekly: Strong local call for Victorian CDS (newspaper)
- Mildura Weekly: Strong local call for Victorian CDS (online)
- EMFM Radio, Echuca
- Riverine Herald: Recyclers rolled into town to sell deposits
- Sunraysia Daily: Cents in can scheme
- The Border Mail: Giant bottle touring Victoria as part of push for Garden State to follow NSW and introduce container deposit scheme
- Illawara Mercury: Albury supermarket owner upbeat about compensation for container scheme as giant bottle visits Beechworth as part of campaign
- The Border Mail: Positive spin of bottle
- Ovens & Murray Advertiser: Can cash make cents
- Ovens & Murray Advertiser: Big Bottle Tour hits the road
- 94.9 Main FM, Bendigo
- Bendigo Advertiser: The Boomerang Alliance's The Big Bottle Tour arrives in Bendigo to promote Container Deposit Schemes
- Triple M Bendigo
- WIN News Bendigo Facebook post
- WIN News Bendigo: Giant inflatable bottle
- Nine News
- Midland Express: Get plogging! Cash for cans and soft plastics
- ABC Radio Ballarat
- The Courier: Big bottle on tour for cash for containers push
- No Waste Ballarat: Guest speaker at movie screening Baykeepers
- Power 103.1 FM: Big Bottle Tour arrives in Ballarat
- Corporate Waste Solutions: Drumming up support for a Container Deposit Scheme
- WIN News Ballarat: Big Bottle
