Talking Point: Container refund scheme allows Tasmanians to share the benefits

JEFF MAGUIRE and EDWARD DOWSE: Reduce landfill and do good for local charities

RECYCLING: Less to landfill. Picture: Che Chorley

Almost 50 per cent of Tasmania’s litter is made up of beverage containers. These are containers that should be collected and almost all can and should be recycled.

Last year, after extensive discussions and deliberations, Tasmania’s Environment Minister Elise Archer announced that by 2022 Tasmania would introduce a Container Refund Scheme (CRS). Recently, the Victorian Premier committed to do the same by 2023, meaning all Australian states and territories now either have a container refund scheme up and running, or are working to introduce one.

Coca-Cola Amatil and Lion Co strongly support the Tasmanian Government’s commitment to introducing a Container Refund Scheme.

Done properly, it will create a truly circular economy which will result in a reduction in litter, avoidance of unnecessary landfill, an increase in collected and recycled material, and importantly, minimise the price impact for consumers.

Even better is the opportunity to engage social enterprise, community groups and charities as refund point operators, processing or logistics providers. Councils can get in the on act by sorting containers collected in kerbside services into the relevant material types and claiming the refund amount.

Take a look at the South Australian scheme that Coca-Cola Amatil and Lion Co have been operating for more than 40 years: consumers know there is a 10c refund in the price of their soft drink or beer and they can claim 10c per container if it’s returned to a container collection point.

Community groups and individuals are encouraged to collect empty drink containers from where they have been carelessly discarded, receiving monetary compensation for helping to clean up litter.

It might seem Tasmania is relatively late to the refund scheme party, but it’s good to know how other states are going with their schemes, including NSW, Queensland and Western Australia (which is set to start on June 2).

Under the Containers for Change model in Queensland and about to roll out in Western Australia, a scheme co-ordinator, which is a not-for-profit body with an independent chair and board members, is set up to run the container refund scheme on behalf of government.

The challenge set by the government is for the scheme co-ordinator to ensure accessibility and convenience of the collection point network for the public to redeem the refund amount. This has been established in Queensland with more than 360 refund locations now operating across the state.

Not only do these schemes not return a profit to the scheme co-ordinator, but significant and diverse opportunities are generated for community groups and small businesses, via an open market tender model, to be involved in the scheme to generate revenue and profits. This could be by operating a collection point, doing litter drives or donation drives, or by promoting the ability for people to donate their refunds directly via a registered scheme account where the funds are electronically transferred to the community group at any collection point.

In Queensland and Western Australia charities, community and school groups can create an account and scheme ID, and when dropping off their containers for recycling, individuals can choose whether to collect their refund, or donate their refund to their charity or group of choice.

In Queensland more than 5000 community groups have established scheme accounts and $2.1 million has been paid to those groups and charities via those electronic scheme accounts, in addition to significant returns for cash and revenue earned if they are operating collection points.

This means, for example, a group (or a family) could decide to have a collection drive one Saturday for a koala rescue charity. Provided the charity was registered in the scheme, the group could donate all profits directly via electronic payment, when handing in their containers for recycling, by quoting the rescue charity’s Scheme ID number.

Of course, charities, community and sporting groups can also set up and operate a physical donation point, as well as using the virtual donation method.

As the producers of many of the beverage containers that make up nearly the 50 per cent of containers mentioned above, we see it as our responsibility to do what we can to reduce litter and increase recycling. The Tasmanian Government has announced a consultation process for the Container Refund Scheme and we look forward to working closely with them, as we have in the other states and territories, to deliver the best possible scheme for Tasmania.

Jeff Maguire is Coca-Cola Amatil’s group head of Container Deposit Scheme Development and Implementation.

Edward Dowse is Lion Co’s commercial manager Container Deposit Scheme.