By Broede Carmody and Sumeyya Ilanbey
Victorians will be able to get 10 cents back on used glass bottles and drink cans from November 1 as part of the Andrews government’s long-awaited recycling reforms.
The announcement comes after a fight with industry over whether there should be one or several private operators, and the level of involvement from charities, community groups and sporting clubs – and more than five years after China’s “National Sword” policy banned the import of Australian recyclables.
Victorian Environment Minister Ingrid Stitt.Credit: Joe Armao
Friday’s announcement confirmed the government had made several concessions by expanding the number of operators to three: paper giant Visy, NSW container deposit scheme operator TOMRA Cleanaway and Australian resource recovery business, Return-It.
VicReturn, whose members include Lion, Coca-Cola and Asahi Beverages, has been appointed as scheme coordinator and will be responsible for managing the marketing of CDS Vic and running its financial operations.
Environment Minister Ingrid Stitt said there would be 600 collection points across the state, making it one of the biggest and most accessible container deposit schemes in the country.
The scheme will not be fully rolled out until November next year, when the network operators are required to have a minimum of one collection point per 14,500 people in metropolitan Melbourne, at least one per town of 750 people in regional areas, and at least one per town of 350 people in remote areas.
“It will be a scheme Victorians should have every confidence in,” Stitt said. “We know Victorians are eager to do more in terms of recycling and protecting our environment, and through the CDS scheme coupled with our other very important waste and recycling policies ... we have one of the most comprehensive ways across the country to recycle our materials and protect our precious environment.”
Under the $500 million recycling reforms, local charities and community groups will be able to receive container donations or even run a collection point.
The head of Scouts Victoria, alongside those running the Good Friday Appeal, previously slammed the Victorian model – arguing charities and community organisations should have greater input.
South Australia became the first Australian jurisdiction to introduce a container deposit scheme in 1975. Victoria, which is the last state to roll out a scheme, will give customers a 10-cent refund when they return eligible cans, bottles or cartons to a collection point.
In Queensland, drink prices went up 9.54 cents in the first 12 months of the scheme, while in NSW prices went up by 7.7 cents. The Victorian government is urging the industry to not raise prices, saying beverage companies were already set to profit from the scheme.
There are 3 billion drink containers sold every day across Victoria. Stitt said since 2017, NSW had recycled 9 billion drink containers.
“This is not on the edges [reform],” Stitt said. “It’ll be a real game changer for the environment because it will cut down on litter.”
Victoria’s recycling system has been in flux since China blocked imports from Australia in 2018, with millions of tonnes either stockpiled or dumped in landfill every year.
The Age revealed in November that REDcycle, the Melbourne company responsible for recycling the soft plastics dropped off at supermarkets, had been stockpiling huge volumes of plastic items in warehouses around the country since 2018.
Environmental investigators have discovered at least 12,000 tonnes of soft plastic in stockpiles across three states – much of which will now end up in landfill.
Opposition environment and climate change spokesman James Newbury said the government had “comprehensively failed” at delivering a sustainable circular economy.
“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,” Newbury said.
Acting Greens leader Tim Read said the scheme would help reduced massive levels of waste being dumped in landfill.
“It’s good to see the government finally overcome their inertia and move towards tackling the waste crisis,” Read said.
“Encouraging more recycling through this scheme is an important first step.”
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