Environmental groups, along with recycling and waste management bodies, are calling on states and territories to follow Queensland in including wine and spirit bottles in container deposit schemes (CDS).
WA, SA and NSW are reportedly investigating a joint decision to include wine and spirit bottles in their CDS. The Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR), the Boomerang Alliance, and the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia (WMRR) have called for implementation by the three states by mid-2024.
Suzanne Toumbourou, CEO of ACOR said, “Expanding the scope of eligible containers to include glass wine and spirit bottles increases the supply of well sorted recovered glass, supporting high value closed loop recycling outcomes and also a lower carbon footprint for glass bottles.”
Jeff Angel, director of the Boomerang Alliance said, “It’s not a hard ask – and the benefits are significant, including turning glass bottles back into more bottles with great circular economy savings for the environment. The Queensland scheme is reporting 14 per cent more glass bottle returns since inclusion of wine on 1 November. There’ll be more jobs too.’’
Gayle Sloan, CEO of Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia added, “WMRR has always argued national harmonisation of extended producer responsibility schemes like CDS is the best way to go. It makes compliance easier for business, reduces confusion for the community, provides high quality input for our manufacturing facilities, creates Australian green jobs and – best of all – delivers a better environmental outcome. Adding wine and spirit bottles is a no-brainer and sure to attract widespread community support. Let’s just get on with it.”
Environmental organisation Planet Ark has previously estimated that NSW alone could see an extra 400 million containers recycled each year if it was to include wine and spirit bottles.
