The Victorian Government’s decision on how the state’s container deposit system (CDS) will operate is a good and wise decision, the Boomerang Alliance of 53 NGOs said today.
"We congratulate the government for listening to the community and rejecting the disinformation campaign by the big bottlers, Coke and Lion, their lobby group VicRecyle and Planet Ark. Everyone should now move on and work together on the key metrics like recycling targets, involvement of charities and the most accessible collection points for consumers to get their 10c refunds,’’ said Jeff Angel, Director of the Alliance.
"Our research into the various types of schemes here in Australia and overseas shows that the chosen "split responsibility" model (Coordinator and Network Operators) is best practise. It sets up the right allocation of responsibilities so that the system can grow, be accountable, accessible and deliver multiple benefits for decades. It’s based on the NSW approach where there has been very significant involvement of charities and small businesses; billions of drink containers returned; and very accessible refund points," Mr Angel said.
"The Boomerang Alliance has been campaigning for Australia to be entirely covered by container deposit schemes and today’s announcement fully achieves this. In fact Australia is the first continent on the planet to do this. There will be remarkable environmental, employment, recycling and charity benefits."
Whilst key design elements and collection arrangements are still to be worked out, the announced scheme means that:
- Responsibility for the scheme is split between the government, the beverage industry and a container collection network (still to be determined)
- Victorians will be able to redeem a 10 cent refund on every plastic, glass or aluminium drink container from 2023
- Container litter will be slashed and recycling significantly increased
- Community organisations will be able to fundraise by collecting cans and bottles
