Expert to Help Bring Back Container Deposits

February 2007

Canadian Expert to Help Bring Back Container Deposits

Remember supplementing pocket money with the 5 cent refund from empty Fanta bottles, or taking part in the annual Scouts Bottle Drive? Seminars launching nationwide next week will show how the reintroduction of Container Deposit Legislation (or CDL) could create 2,000 new jobs across New Zealand and inject more than $300,000 per day into the social economy. New modelling of CDL shows there is much more to this proposition than just cutting waste and saving on council costs.

Sustainability consultants Envision New Zealand are working to bring back container deposits to address the growing problem of beverage container waste, which is responsible for about 6% of New Zealand’s waste stream.

With over 50% of beverages consumed away from home, the empty containers are discarded in public litter bins rather than being recycled through kerbside collections.
Envision contend that up to 95% of these containers will be returned for refund and recycling if a deposit of around 10 cents is placed on every empty drink container, as is the policy in 35 states and countries around the world. Currently, New Zealand has a very low return rate of less than 40%.

In addition, container deposits will reduce greenhouse gas emissions (it takes much less energy to make a container out of recycled material than to use new material), reduce litter on roadsides and beaches, reduce waste and litter control costs to councils and ratepayers, create hundreds of new jobs through a new, self-funding return infrastructure, and create a significant income stream for local community groups and businesses.

In consultation with nine international experts from Australia, Canada, the Pacific and the USA, Envision have developed a sophisticated model of how CDL could work in New Zealand.

Canadian Tom Galimberti, contributor to the New Zealand CDL model and an architect of highly successful Canadian CDL systems, arrives in New Zealand this week to help Envision host a series of seminars around the country to explain how CDL could work here. Interested parties will also be invited to have their say.

On completion of the seminars a detailed report will be presented to Government and all political parties.

The seminars will be held in Auckland (12th March), Wellington (13th March), Christchurch (14th March) and Dunedin (15th March).

ENDS

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