Chapter 3: Why Legislate For Deposits On Containers?

Chapter 3

WHY LEGISLATE FOR DEPOSITS ON CONTAINERS?

Deposit systems typically achieve far higher return rates than other collection schemes. In South Australia for example, deposits on glass beverage containers achieve return rates of between 84 and 97% [8, p.5] compared with only 27% [9, p.56] for glass containers without a deposit in New South Wales. Yet despite the acknowledged success of Container Deposit Legislation in SA at retrieving containers for re-use and recycling, the beverage and container industries lobby vigorously against it in other states.

Since these industries profit so greatly from the continued production of one-trip containers it would be unrealistic to expect that they would ever voluntarily re-introduce deposits on containers. Recognising this as long ago as 1978 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recommended [5, pp.158-159] that member countries, including Australia;

"adopt appropriate measures with a view to maintaining, or where necessary introducing, a system of distribution by refillable containers covering as much as possible of the beverage trade", and that, "regardless of the measures taken to promote the re-use of beverage containers, member countries encourage the recycling of the ultimately disposed-of containers".

- reproduced in full in Appendix I.

Having paid little attention to this recommendation, NSW, like the rest of Australia has suffered from the loss of refillables (except in SA) and is in the midst of a waste crisis. As a result, the only means of re-introducing refillables, other than by banning one-trip containers, is to legislate for deposits. Additionally, the introduction of CDL is necessary to pave the way for, and be an integral part of, a broader strategy to reduce all waste.

A Container Deposit Bill, prepared by Friends of the Earth to suit the existing infrastructure in NSW, will come before parliament during 1993. The introduction of CDL is vital to ensure the successful operation of an effective waste minimisation strategy for this state.