Container Deposits Key Facts

The Current Situation:

• Australia consumes around 14billion (1.25million tonnes) of beverage containers p.a.
• Beverage Container recycling rates are, at best, around 53%.
• In 2007/08 local government had to pay out $410million to operate kerbside recycling rates
• According to Keep Australia Beautiful, Beverage Containers represent 29% of all litter (by volume).
• Independent Polls conducted over the past 4 years show that at least 93% of the public wants a CD scheme and are prepared to pay both the deposit and, if necessary, a small handling fee.

The Costs:

• There isn’t a lot of debate about the direct financial costs. The main charge is a handling fee (the fee the recycling depot earns) on every beverage container recovered. This is about 5¢ in South Australia and for a national scheme is estimated will range between 3.7- 4.2¢ a container.

• These handling fees are funded from 2 sources:

1. The value of the scrap sold – average 1.9¢ a container;
2. The unredeemed deposits – on a 10¢ deposit @ 83% recovery = 1.8¢

• This means that the gov’t administrator can pay for the recovery at no cost to the consumer i.e. no handling charges to the beverage industry;

• There is actually a surplus (after collection fees are paid of about 0.5¢ a can) in the recycling fund –worth $57million a year.
• This money should be used to: pay for the admin of the scheme; promote recycling; & as bounties for reprocessing the material domestically – if we reprocess the additional 630,000 tonnes of containers domestically we get an annual GHG saving of 1.4million tonnes Co2-e;
• The past 3 economic analysis have concluded the direct economic costs are about 0.5¢ a container (1.8¢ in charges to polluters (unredeemed deposits) less benefits worth around 1.3¢;
• The beverage industry say CD will cost 14¢ or $500+million p.a. They arrive at this by taking a 10¢ deposit + 4¢ handling fee. They ignore: refunded deposits, the value of recyclate, and the benefits.
• There is a second ‘economic cost’ some economists add in. They are inconvenience costs, the idea of lost time to drop off you containers at the local collection point in your supermarkets car park. These represent most of the supposed costs of a container deposit system at around $250million a year, but they do not represent any actual out of pocket cost.

The Benefits of a National Container Deposit System

• An 83% recycling rate
• The private sector build 400+ large scale recycling depots and 1,600 convenience collection points.
• These depots will recover, at least another 500,000 tonnes of packaging material that is not covered by the deposit.
• The scheme will create between 1 – 2,000 new jobs.
• Government has a fund of about $50million p.a. to invest in recycling
• Local Government will save about $60million p.a. (they get the deposit value for anything the collect making the small amount of material left in kerbside very valuable).
• Recover some $300million in recyclate each year
• Provide recycling services to around 350,000 rural and remote homes for the first time
• Over 600,000 tonnes of new material will be recovered saving:

1. 1.3million tonnes of co2-e p.a.;
2. 8.1gigalitres of water a year;
3. Reduce the amount of litter by around -15-20%.