10c Refund on Empty Cans and Bottles

[dales133]

I don't think many would oppose  paying 10 cents more a bottle or can.i throw my cans in recycling I could just as easy throw them in something else and take them down the bottle shop once a month and get a slab for half price or so

[JCOJ]

I think it is a great idea!  We have two old style rubbish bins and when they're full off to the recycling depot we go. Gives us about $50 back.

[dales133]

Yea isn't that much hassle, I hate throwing anything away that can be reused

[theins]

Yea isn't that much hassle, I hate throwing anything away that can be reused

X2

[Marschy]

Nah it doesn't work.

10, 20, 30, 40, 50..... About $20 there in bag 1 of 2. We usually fill two of these and get close to $70.00 about every 3 months.

Anyone who doesn't support this, quite frankly has their heads up their bum. How can this not be a good thing for the environment, pensioners, kids earning a bit of pocket money, jobs, the homeless (who a great many depend on recycling to just live). I pass a women on the way to work every morning pushing a shopping trolley full of cans heading for the recycling station on Churchill Road. She has more cans than what could fill two of these two full bags every day.

[monbeg]

Agree Marschy.
We have a spare sulo bin and that usually comes just over $40 a time.
I notice you haven't squashed them, we squash everything flat.

[Marschy]

Agree Marschy.
We have a spare sulo bin and that usually comes just over $40 a time.
I notice you haven't squashed them, we squash everything flat.

Just to keep the weight down, no other reason. My wife quite often takes my daughter down to the recycling station to cash them in. If they are squashed down and still fill the bag, the bag gets too heavy for her. And if she injures herself, who is going to mow the lawn?

[rossm]

Just to keep the weight down, no other reason. My wife quite often takes my daughter down to the recycling station to cash them in. If they are squashed down and still fill the bag, the bag gets too heavy for her. And if she injures herself, who is going to mow the lawn?

HOw do they work out the refund? when I lived in Adelaide in the 80s drank mostly stubbies so I just pack em back in the carton.

You look to have a mixed bag there. Do they count them?

[Pog]

Yep, they count each can / bottle at the recycling centre, and give you 10 cents for each one...

My last visit was nearly $400 for just under a years worth of cans & bottles. (Ute &trailer load).

It is a great system, and yes, whilst the cost of a carton goes up, you get to claim it back when you recycle.

The system is a no brainer, and whilst SA is often laughed at for being backwards, this is defiately 1 area (and in all honesty the only area) where we are leading the country.

[#jonesy]

So do you pay 10c more for each to start with?

Why do the container companies hate it?  Wouldn't they have to melt down instead of starting from scratch?

[nic0]

When i was growing up in SA me and my mates would go around collecting bottles on our bikes and cash them in at the local deli for a bag of mixed lollies

[Marschy]

The system is a no brainer, and whilst SA is often laughed at for being backwards, this is defiately 1 area (and in all honesty the only area) where we are leading the country.

What about unemployment?

[dales133]

Unemployment would be minimal and collateral damage for a better environmental practice.im sure almost as many jobs would be created.
After all it dosn't generate jobs wasting bottles and cans

[Marschy]

Unemployment would be minimal and collateral damage for a better environmental practice.im sure almost as many jobs would be created.
After all it dosn't generate jobs wasting bottles and cans

Sorry, poor attempt at humour.

The recycling depot's don't generate a lot of employment, but they do employ people throughout SA. This picture is pretty typical of our Recycling centres for cans and bottles.

[dales133]

Cool...sorry missed the humor!
I'm sure some enterprising person could make a supplementary income collecting bottles and cans from people for a percentage of the 10 cents.if you had a minimum pick up amount and a small truck you'd have to be able to make some money if you had collection days for an era and minimum amounts.im lazy enough to pay someone part of my 10 cents

[tk421]

The question I ask is why don't all states do the same thing? It may stop a lot of cans and bottles left at campsites around the country. Does anyone know if it makes a difference in SA or NT?

     

When NT govt trialled it recycling rate for beverage containers reportedly doubled to 33% (acfonline.org.au)

The consumer must pay surely , the 10 cent fee must be added to the retail price first for them to pay the 10 cents when returned. 
 If that is so that would mean that if introduced in Queensland it would cost me another 3 dollars per 30 pack.  Bugger that , grog is dear enough already.

Yes. But you get the $3:30 returned to you if you return all the containers. Net cost to you =$0.00

The reason drinks companies don't want it is they know it puts their price up a little bit and this means demand will drop just a little bit. CocaCola Amatil pumps out 560mllion unit cases a year (roughly 5.3billion 600ml bottles). Even just a 0.5pc drop in demand affects the companies when operating at that scale.

Tell the pollies you want it and you won't vote for them unless they support it. Their self interests should win over pressure.

[Marschy]

Cool...sorry missed the humor!
I'm sure some enterprising person could make a sublime try income collecting bottles and cans from people for a percentage of the 10 cents.if you had a minimum pick up amount and a small truck you'd have to be able to make some money if you had collection days for an era and minimum amounts.im lazy enough to pay someone part of my 10 cents

This used to be the case many years ago when cans and bottles only had a value of 5 cents. The depots themselves would only pay a portion of the 5 cent refund to the collector, but they disappeared as eventually the economy didn't make it profitable. I haven't seen any companies like this pop up again since the value increased to 10 cents. All depots now pay the full refund, so they must be funded by the government to some degree or by the value of each can actually being worth more than 10 cents in scrap weight to make it profitable for them.

[Diesel Power]

We won't have it in  QLD! We're too slow to catch on to anything like this.
I used to make a killing in pocket money off the shearers when we had the farm.
Regards
Angus.

[FNQBunyip]

As a lad working on stations in outback SA , I would collect old bottles from all the old dump sites behind homesteads and shearers quarters and from campsites from the fencers .. I save most of the money for my first ute from returning trailer loads of empty echos and king browns..

It should happen in all states ..

cheers

[KingBilly]

We won't have it in  QLD! We're too slow to catch on to anything like this.
I used to make a killing in pocket money off the shearers when we had the farm.
Regards
Angus.

Had it in Qld years ago.  Think plastic soft drink bottles killed it.  They should have kept it going and just included the plastic bottles 

KB

[macca]

The new vending machines they are trialing identify each type of container and give a credit accordingly. The credits can be redeemed at supermarkets etc

[fisher]

depots now pay the full refund, so they must be funded by the government to some degree or by the value of each can actually being worth more than 10 cents in scrap weight to make it profitable for them.

The government doesn't contribute financially to the scheme at all.  It administers the scheme, basically to ensure all beverages sold in SA are approved for sale.  Depots must pay the 10c, and then there is an arrangement re scrap value - but independent of govt.

When industry used to have refillable bottles they would pay 20c to have those returned to be refilled.  It suited them then to pay for a refund scheme, but since the introduction of single use containers they have really stepped away from it.  We all see beverage prices fluctuate wildly week in week out.  At times your carton of beer - on sale - will be $3-$5 or more cheaper than normal.  Its a hard call to say that 10c is added to the cost of each container, but it is not in all cases (in actual fact its higher than that, because the depots get a handling fee of 3 to 5 cents for each container as well).  In theory consumers will be paying 15c for each container.  Quite often the cost is amortised across Australia for national products.

But it works - less litter and more efficiency in the recycling of old containers rather than sending them to landfill or litter.

[pajamajero]

I think it has been good for SA. Combine the recycling of cans (and other containers) with strong littering laws that were introduced along with public education campaigns targeting litter and the results have been impressive. As an ex Croweater it was amazing to drive on regional roads in SA and not see rubbish along the roadside.
The deposit system has generated jobs in the recycling area and income for individuals, clubs and businesses prepared to get involved.

One sad side is the sight of old age pensioners in the city and major shopping centers wandering around going through rubbish bins for cans, usually pushing some kind of trolley to put the booty in. Income is income I guess.

Cheers

Alan 

[Azz]

I decided to take some action, I have put a post on Facebook with my Federal & State members tagged, lets see if all the noise we hear about stuff going everywhere is really true.
Reading everyones posts, the majority are in favour of the sort of thing being national.

https://www.facebook.com/Azzzz/posts/10152559337387330?notif_t=like

[Elky]

When i was growing up in SA me and my mates would go around collecting bottles on our bikes and cash them in at the local deli for a bag of mixed lollies

Yep same, born in Adelaide and you could get 5c for a can and 20c for a glass bottle, we did alright for kids! When I was 14 we came to qld and I saw a ad on tv about recycling cans and they spruiked "50c a kilo for cans!" I quickly did the maths in my head and concluded that was a rip off and qld are way behind the times

I reckon if your goin thru nt or sa taking a sack of cans could be quite lucrative, squashing them to fit will allow for even more beers at rest time!