2 May 2019
As members and supporters of Wildlife Queensland know we were a strong advocate for the container refund scheme (CRS) and, with our partner the Boomerang Alliance, helped get the scheme started. From our point of view, a scheme that can reduce litter and impacts on wildlife, increase recycling and provide a financial boost to community organisations that collect containers, is a good thing.
This week marked six months since the scheme was introduced in Queensland and the State Government reports that the CRS, Containers for Change, has collected over 440 million containers, which means $44 million has been returned to Queenslanders and community groups through the refund. The scheme has also led to the employment of over 600 people around the state, involved in collections and recycling.
A State Government litter survey in February showed a 35% decrease in container litter. So far so good.
It’s important that the refund scheme becomes common practice for everyone so Wildlife Queensland will be looking forward to seeing it becoming more convenient and resolving some of the collection problems it has faced in the first six months. We have put these problems down to teething issues that need to be resolved, said Wildlife Queensland campaigns officer Toby Hutcheon.
“We think that in addition to the depots already established, we need to see more collection points in shopping centres so that dropping containers off can become a normal part of a shopping trip. This is certainly how it works in many parts of Europe,” Toby said.
Before the container refund scheme started, Queensland was collecting about 32% of all containers. The rest were either landfilled or littered. With the scheme in place and containers still collected in kerbside, the rate is probably risen to over 50%.
We still have a long way to go to reach the best schemes in the world.
- South Australia has a return rate just below 80%.
- Countries like Germany have a return rate of 95%.
We have made a good start and just need to keep going. Are you or your local NFP organisation collecting containers?
Did you know that you can donate your drink container refunds to help our native wildlife?
It’s simple, here’s how:
- Take your collected eligible empty drink containers to a Containers for Change collection point
- Donate your refund to Wildlife Queensland projects by quoting our scheme ID number: C10002920
- OR Save the image above with our ID number to your phone for quick and easy reference when you’re at the collection point.
Each container earns 10 cents which adds up really quickly!