When Victoria’s cash for cans scheme will start to pay off

Victorians can soon earn money by returning their used cans, bottles and cartons to community drop-off points as a new scheme gets set to kick in.

Victorians will finally be able to cash in on their used cans, bottles and cartons from November 1.

Under the state’s container deposit scheme, Victorians will be paid 10 cents for every drink can, bottle and carton returned to a community drop off point.

The scheme will be led by VicReturn in collaboration with Visy, TOMRA Cleanaway and Return-It.

A network of more than 600 refund collection points will be established across the state.

Within 12 months, the network operators must have a minimum of one collection point per 14,500 people in metropolitan areas, at least one per town of 750 people in regional towns, and at least one per town of 350 people in remote places.

Victorians will be paid 10 cents for every drink can, bottle and carton returned to a community drop off point.

When Victorians return their empty drink container to a refund collection point, they will receive a 10-cent refund which can be kept or donated to a participating charity, community group, environmental group, educational organisation or sports group.

The returned container is recycled and remanufactured into a new product, saving it from landfill or littering the environment.

The scheme is predicted to cut almost half of the rubbish found in streets and waterways.

Beverage companies will fund the program, however it is expected the costs will be included in the sale price of drinks.

Environment Minister Ingrid Stitt said the program will be the “most accessible and convenient” in the nation.

“Victoria’s container deposit scheme will maximise the number of cans, bottles and cartons being recycled into new products, put extra cash in Victorian pockets and will reduce the amount of litter in our environment by half,” she said.

VicReturn, the scheme co-ordinator, is a not-for-profit created by major beverage companies including Lion, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners and Asahi Beverages.

They have managed container deposit schemes in other states and in Victoria they will handle the scheme’s marketing, financial operations and ensuring it runs properly.

Australia is on track to become the first continant in the world to be fully covered by container refund schemes. Picture: Sarah Matray

In a statement, they said they hoped to educate Victorians soon about how they could start earning refunds from their bottles and cans.

“Container Deposit Scheme (CDS) Victoria will have real environmental and social benefits and help create a circular economy for beverage containers,” VicReturn chair Paul Klymenko said.

“I also congratulate the three successful network Operators on their appointments, and look

forward to working with them to make CDS Vic a huge success.”

The Boomerang Alliance said Australia is now on the cusp of being the only continent to be fully covered by container refund schemes, with Tasmania the only state left to announce its start date.

But the Alliance, which is made up of 55 NGOs and has for decades been campaigning for this scheme, said there were challenges that the Andrews government needed to address over the coming months.

“The next six to nine months is quite a short time and we may find that not all the refund points will be in place by November 1,” Alliance director Jeff Angel said.

“This caused problems in NSW which also had a short rollout period. The situation could be exacerbated by the multiple network operators and their varying capacities to deliver the 600 efficient and convenient refund points and depots for consumers and households and multiple aggregation sites.

“It remains to be seen whether having multiple network operators will lead to competition and a better infrastructure rollout as the government wants or the lowest common denominator for least cost. This is important as we want people to have maximum convenience to get their refunds and return all their drink containers.’’

Robert Iervasi, CEO of Asahi Australia, said the move was a winner. Picture: Aaron Francis

Asahi Beverages group chief executive Robert Iervasi said:

“As the maker of some of Victoria’s most beloved beverages such as Victoria Bitter, Carlton

Draught, Schweppes, Pepsi Max, Solo and Cool Ridge water, we’re pleased that more of our

beverage containers will now be recycled and play a part in the circular economy.”

Acting Greens leader Tim Read said the scheme would help to reduce the “massive levels”’of waste being dumped in landfill.

The Greens have taken credit for the program and said its launch is a “direct result of having Greens in parliament”.

“We introduced the first cash for containers legislation into the Victorian Parliament. Then when the waste crisis erupted and the Victorian Government was slow to act, the Greens initiated a Parliamentary Inquiry into the crisis which also recommended a ‘cash for containers’ policy in Victoria,” Dr Read said

“It’s good to see the government finally overcome their inertia and move towards tackling the waste crisis.”

But opposition environment and climate change spokesman James Newbury said the government had taken too long to implement the scheme in full.

“Victorians have been calling for a container deposit scheme for half a decade, and yet Daniel Andrews has confirmed that we will be waiting for another 18 months before a scheme will be fully rolled out,” he said.

“The Labor government has comprehensively failed at developing a sustainable circular economy.”