Cash for cans plan secretly prepared under Denis Napthine’s government

A container deposit scheme was secretly prepared under Denis Napthine’s government, but was scrapped when the Liberals lost the 2014 state election. Now, the former Premier is urging Victoria to revisit recycling incentives.

A secret cash-a-can plan was being developed to roll out across Victoria and NSW if the Liberals had won the 2014 state election.

The container deposit scheme, which was opposed by the ALP under Daniel Andrews, would have given consumers 10 cents for every clean can or bottle returned to collection points.

A NSW scheme was eventually established without Victorian involvement in late 2017, and has seen more than 2 billion bottles and cans returned.

As the recycling crisis continues in Victoria, former premier Denis Napthine told the Sunday Herald Sun we should join NSW and embrace the “environmental plan”.

“We were doing work with NSW … if we had won the election we wanted to do it in conjunction with NSW,” Dr Napthine said.

Former Premier Denis Napthine is calling for Victoria to join NSW’s container deposit scheme. Picture: Kylie Else

“If we had won the election we would have announced it.”

A long-time advocate of the system that operates across the border to him in South Australia, Dr Napthine said it was one of his regrets in a lengthy political career that he couldn’t get a CDS in Victoria.

“You might need a bit of money upfront, but that’s nothing in terms of the benefits you get from cleaning up the environment. I go to the footy here and see all the mess around. Over in South Australia it’s spotless, because kids are walking around picking up cans,” he said.

Advice provided to the Napthine Government showed a Victorian-only scheme would have cost $1.25-$5.64 million to set up over two years, with ongoing costs of up to $3.15 million.

Some beverage industry companies have railed against the plan, however, saying it would add costs to consumers.
They say in NSW there has been 12c added to the cost of containers — most of which is passed through to shoppers.

The Andrews Government has flagged trials of extra household bins to separate waste rather than a CDS, which now operates in South Australia, NSW and Queensland with the help of bottle giant Coca-Cola Amatil.

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Head of external affairs at Coca-Cola Amatil, Patrick Low, said: “If Victoria does set up a CDS we would be very keen to work with the government in the way it is set up, as we have in every other state.”

Coca-cola now used 100 per cent recycled plastic for its smaller bottles in Australia after technology introduced this year enabled it to roll out the world-first products.

Beer giant CUB said “as a major bottler we’re encouraged that the Victorian Government has committed to new initiatives to better sort materials to increase recycling”.

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