The NSW government has delayed the start of its container deposit scheme by five months due to pressure from industry bodies.
Environment Minister Gabrielle Upton said the scheme, which would involve consumers paying 10 cents for every bottle or can that's recycled, would now be rolled out from 1 December, 2017.
The move came as Australia's volunteer clean-up group released figures showing drink bottles were being thrown away in large quantities.
Beverage container rubbish rose 1.5 per cent in 2016 and made up more than one-third of Clean Up Australia's total garbage count.
For the first time, soft drink cans were among the top 10 most discarded items.
The scheme aims to reduce litter in the state by 40 per cent by 2020.
Upton said Clean Up Australia and the Boomerang Alliance, along with industry stakeholders, wanted the extension to ensure the container deposit scheme was a world-leading program from day one.
However, the scheme, which is to be funded by beverage suppliers, has faced opposition from convenience store operators who have said there are "too many "unknowns".
The Australian Beverages Council has backed the extension wholeheartedly.
CEO Geoff Parker said while the beverage industry fully supported the scheme, the council's members considered the proposed start date of 1 July 2017 as "completely unviable from an effective implementation standpoint".
“We have long been appealing to the NSW Government to reconsider the proposed start date," Parker said.
“It’s a credit to the Minister, who’s only been in the job a matter of weeks, that she has listened to our concerns and responded with positive action.”
