2016-10-25
From July next year consumers and community groups in New South Wales will be entitled to recover 10 cents upon the presentation of an empty beverage can or bottle after the New South Wales Parliament passed legislation last week. By the middle of next year there will be a container deposit scheme in South Australia, the Northern Territory and New South Wales, with others well on the way in both Queensland and Western Australia. Very soon Victoria will be the only mainland state outside the national container deposit scheme. This means that Victorians will be the only ones unable to redeem their drink containers for 10 cents and the only ones committing a crime if they try to redeem containers interstate.
Meanwhile the Victorian Labor government continues to use completely unreliable statistics — statistics produced by the beverage industry — to continue to thwart a national scheme. A container deposit scheme clearly benefits everyone. It benefits recyclers, it benefits consumers, community groups and the broader community, and it benefits local councils. It seems the only groups left in Australia who oppose a container deposit scheme are Coca-Cola and the Victorian Labor Party. The Greens are absolutely committed to a container deposit scheme and will be introducing the text of a bill shortly.