Bottle buyback scheme could be making a comeback

Saturday, 12 May 2018

Waikawa resident Linda Thompson says a levy on beverage containers in New Zealand 'would be fantastic'.

Linda Thompson, 68, remembers collecting Coke bottles as a child and taking them to the dairy for a three cent refund.

'That was how we got our pocket money,' Thompson says.

St Mary's School leaders say they'd use pocket money from a bottle buyback scheme to help their families and communities.

'I remember every time we popped around to our aunt's and uncle's house for dinner we would see if they had any bottles, and then save them. It was the norm among every kid my age.'

Bottle buyback schemes were phased out in the 1980s, but have since made a resurgence all around the world - except New Zealand.

Now councils up and down the country are calling for central Government to bring back a container deposit scheme (CDS), to encourage consumers to recycle glass, aluminium and plastic drink containers by placing a levy on beverage containers.

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For Thompson, a resident of Waikawa, just outside Picton, a levy on beverage containers 'would be fantastic'.

'Now, I see on Mondays after a busy weekend, there are cans and bottles in the road gutter all along Queen Charlotte Drive.'

Ronald Peters, 87, says bottle buybacks were useful in a time when 'money was hard to come by'.

'We used to crawl under houses just to collect bottles to take to the bottle-o or the scrap yard to get a bob each,' Peters says.

'My friends and I, we'd have one joker talking to the scrap yard owner while the other would swing around the back, steal a dozen bottles or so and then sell them back to the owner for extra pocket money.'

The movement has widespread support - including from the Kiwi Bottle Drive who are petitioning Government for a return to the bottle drives of the 1980s, to try to recycle some of the two billion plastic bottle we buy every year.

Kiwi Bottle Drive campaign co-ordinator Holly Dove said a buyback scheme would be a good recycling tool.

'A container deposit scheme would be good for the environment and an effective revenue earner for local recycling centres, which we could base collection points from,' Dove said.

'It would also provide green entry-level jobs for locals, and the jobs generated from these schemes would pay for itself.

A bottle buyback scheme could improve compaction levels across the nation thanks to the removal of glass.

'A deposit scheme would also be an effective community recycling tool, especially in regards to fundraising for school groups.'

Students at St Mary's School in Blenheim were keen on the idea of getting a bit of extra pocket money and helping to keep the environment clean.

The levy would help fund the end of life treatment for beverage containers such as aluminium cans.

'I could make enough pocket money to help my mum grow her garden better,' pupil Joseph Thomas said.

The discussion around container deposit schemes will be heard at the Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) conference in mid-July.

Marlborough District Council solid waste manager Alec McNeil said the discussion aimed to inform the council about CDSs.

'The Trade Association Forum Waste Manifesto, which includes a container deposit scheme as a priority, would be put up as remit to the LGNZ conference this year,' McNeil said.

A Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) spokesperson said they have 'endorsed the concept of a national-mandated beverage CDS and requested that the Government require industry to develop and implement a CDS'.

'There has however been strong beverage industry opposition to container deposit schemes in the past,' the spokesperson said.

'LGNZ seeks to work with the Government on better understanding opposition to a CDS and how it can be addressed.'

Chairs from across the country would need to support the manifesto at the conference for the issue to be passed to Associate Minister for the Environment, Eugenie Sage.

Sage said 'we need to reduce waste across the board'.

'This includes looking at container deposit and product stewardship schemes and other options such as economic incentives to reduce waste going to landfill,' Sage said.

'Container deposit schemes are one method to reduce litter and increase the recovery of containers.

'This Government is committed to significantly reducing the amount of waste going to landfill and I am keen to explore the most effective options to do this.

'We need to make it as easy as possible for people to reduce, re-use and recycle.'

McNeil said to get a nation-wide CDS, New Zealand needs central government investment, and for the public and private sectors to work together.

'We can trial CDSs in regions but they need to look the same in all areas of the country, which is something we can only achieve with central backing,' McNeil said.

If approved, the levy would provide a deposit back to individuals or groups returning containers and fund the end of life treatment of containers.

WasteMINZ chief executive Paul Evans said the core function of a CDS was to 'minimise litter by putting a value on containers'.

'With a value, people are less likely to litter,' Evans said.

'And if they do litter, the value makes it likely that someone else will pick it up.'

A report from TA Forum, a sector of the Waste Management Institute New Zealand, said a CDS could save councils up to $20.9 million per annum on recycling collection costs.

It also said New Zealand could be better off by up to $645 million over a 10 year period.