The Local Government Association of South Australia (LGA SA) has published a submission responding to the State Government’s review of the Container Deposit Scheme.
The Environment Protection Authority has consulted on a draft Environment Protection (Beverage Container Deposit Scheme) Amendment Bill 2024 which proposes reforms focused on improved governance and modernisation of the state’s CDS.
Matters relating to national harmonisation – including container types, refund amounts, labelling and community education – are also being considered.
“LGA supports the proposed amendments to the Container Deposit Scheme to further the role product stewardship plays in economic growth and transitioning toward a more circular economy in South Australia,” the Association said in a statement.
“Importantly, our submission asks the state government to include glass, wine, spirit and cordial bottles in the CDS.”
It says doing this, and diverting glass containers from kerbside collection, would:
- inject an additional $76 million into the South Australia economy every year;
- create up to 120 new full-time jobs within the recycling sector;
- save councils and communities an estimated $34 million annually.
“These figures are supported through economic modelling undertaken by the EPA to inform its Improving South Australia’s Recycling Makes Cents discussion paper and consultation summary report,” the LGA SA says.
“Amending the Bill to include glass wine, spirit and cordial bottles also supports the move toward national harmonisation of Container Deposit Schemes and the commitment from all state and territory governments to achieve this by the end of 2025.”
There is strong support from South Australian councils to include glass beverage containers in the Container Deposit Scheme.
Currently, glass wine, spirit and cordial bottles represent around 22,031 tonnes of material collected from yellow co-mingled kerbside bins annually.
As it stands:
- breakage and contamination of glass in kerbside bins means around 90% of potential recycling and reuse is waste. Only 11%, or 2,523 tonnes, of this glass is recovered as high value cullet which can then be used for bottle-to-bottle recycling
- off the 10,020 tonnes of wine and spirit glass containers currently being returned to CDS depots annually, 98% or 9,870 tonnes of this material is recovered as high value cullet.
Adding glass wine, spirit and cordial bottles into the Container Deposit Scheme would uphold the principle of the polluter pays – that is, those who produce pollution should bear the costs of managing it, says the Association.
“These are the principles on which the scheme was built and would level the playing field for all beverage suppliers across the state,” it says.
Read the LGA SA submission here.
