Container Deposit Legislation (CDL)

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What is CDL?

Imagine getting a refund every time you return an empty drink bottle, can or carton.
Imagine how clean the streets, bushland, rivers and ocean would be.
Imagine all the jobs if companies such as Coca-Cola employed people to conserve resources rather than waste them.
That's CDL !!!

The Benefits

Litter

Beverage containers are a significant component of litter which CDL would drastically reduce.
CDL reduces litter by giving containers a value - providing a financial incentive for people to return rather than dispose of them.
CDL encourages people to return their own, or collect littered containers, and receive a refund for doing so. The result: virtually no beverage container litter, no overflowing public bins, and very few beverage containers in the waste stream.
CDL also helps keep the scene clean because people litter less in a clean environment.

Waste & Recycling

Without CDL, kerbside recycling is becoming too expensive to operate - a point already reached in some council areas. The whole recycling collection system is being strained to breaking point.
Kerbside recycling operates at great expense to councils and ratepayers - it is NOT funded by industry! In fact, beverage and packaging companies are being heavily subsidised by having their packaging collected for them. Up to $60 per household, or around $100 million per year nationally, is spent propping-up the kerbside recycling system.
Despite the huge expense of the kerbside system, most containers are still thrown away and end up in landfill.
CDL would reduce the cost of kerbside and provide a popular alternative for the collection and reuse or recycling of virtually all beverage containers.

Container Return & Reuse

The possibility of returning containers to shops, collection depots, or via kerbside collection services would ensure a range of convenient options are available.
Return to shops or shopping centres could occur as part of the next shopping journey, and many options exist for locating collection depots (council compounds, shops, shopping centres, community groups such as Scouts and Guides, to name just a few).
CDL would also be helpful in encouraging the use of refillable containers. 'Refillables' have many environmental advantages over single use containers. Denmark and Canada provide excellent examples of where refillable containers and refundable deposits work hand-in-hand.
Refillable containers are in widespread use throughout much of the rest of the world. The introduction of CDL may therefore help bring back returnables.

Consumers & Community

There's no reason to believe products in refundable containers will be more expensive. In fact, savings due to the efficiency of CDL should lower prices.
Another benefit is that collection costs would be funded by 'unclaimed deposits'. Only consumers who don't return containers fund the system.
Why should councils and ratepayers subsidise the beverage and packaging industries by collecting their containers? CDL would end this unjust situation.
CDL would provide all people in the community with an opportunity to earn some extra money. In particular it would assist needy community groups, young people, and disadvantaged citizens in supplementing their income.
Rural communities, which currently do not have any recycling facilities or services, could benefit from CDL by the provision of recycling collection depots.

Ratepayers

Surveys indicate the community overwhelmingly supports CDL.
CDL would help reduce council rates by terminating the substantial beverage and packaging industry subsidy associated with the kerbside collection of their packaging containers.
Any refundable containers that might end up in the household recycling stream would help pay for the kerbside recycling service and further reduce rates.
CDL is based on the principle of 'polluter pays', rather than community pays. Consumers who dispose of containers, rather than ratepayers, fund the collection system.

Producers

Establishment costs would be more than covered by unclaimed deposits.
CDL assigns responsibility for the life cycle of packaging to its producers.
Only when producers take back, and accept responsibility for the packaging they use, do they begin to consider less wasteful methods of supplying their product.
CDL would create an opportunity for new businesses to enter the market - perhaps through the use of refillable containers by smaller bottling companies - and foster a greater level of competition for the multinational companies presently dominating the market.

Retailers

Retailers should not be exempt from responsibility for the products they sell.
It is only fair that retailers play a role in the return of containers to manufacturers - after all, they make a significant profit from their sale.
Viewed positively, refunds on containers would boost business for retailers by promoting return custom.
Shops and shopping centres could attract customers by providing convenient return systems for containers.

Employment

CDL is a proven job creator!
Jobs created far outweigh any job losses.
Jobs are typically created handling and sorting containers at retail outlets and collection depots, transporting and processing collected materials, and from business opportunities flowing from the collection of higher quality material.
Around 500 new jobs are created for every million people through the introduction of CDL.