MASSIVE SUPPORT FOR BIGGER DRINK CONTAINER REFUND SCHEMES
Australians want more drink products such as wine and spirits in Australia’s container refund schemes by a very big majority.
Over 90% support ‘the expansion of the 10cts refund scheme for drink bottles and cans to include more containers, like wine and spirit bottles’ as the attached Omnipoll, commissioned by Total Environment Centre, reveals. We call on state governments to complete their current consultations and get on with the job of delivering improved refund schemes to Australians.
Jeff Angel, Director of the Total Environment Centre shares that "The high results are consistent across states, sex, age, location, and degree of involvement in the schemes. More than 1.5billion extra containers would be recovered and recycled each year, delivering $150m to households and charities. There will also be extra jobs created and more material to turn back into bottles. Even more benefits would result from inclusion of plain milk and health tonics in the scheme."
Currently, NSW, WA, SA, ACT and QLD are reviewing the inclusion of extra containers.
We are aware of concerns by wine producers, but frankly these lack credibility and echo the failed arguments by the big beverage companies when they were opposing refund schemes some years back. By resisting this move, the wine industry will tarnish its environmental reputation. Container refunds are far and away the best approach to recycling to the highest value – other alternatives such as via existing kerbside or new bins are poor options.
Total Environment Centre supports appropriate transitional arrangements for small producers.