WA and QLD look to expand their container deposit schemes

Reporting by Harrison Davies

The Western Australian government announced on 2 December that they would be opening community consultation for an expansion to their container deposit scheme (CDS).

The proposed expansion would mean that 750ml wine bottles would be included within the scheme.

The proposal follows similar proposals in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, which announced an expansion in early November.

More than 1.76 billion containers have been recycled since Containers for Change was introduced in WA two years ago. It has created 820 jobs, with in excess of $6.5 million donated to over 5,000 community groups, charities and schools.

The recycling rate of beverage containers has soared from 34 per cent to 61 per cent under the scheme.

It’s estimated the proposal would see an extra 140 million containers available for collection each year. This equates to an additional $14 million in refunds for consumers, charities and community groups.

WA Environment Minister Reece Whitby said the scheme was popular amongst the WA community and that the state government would offer extended consultation to allow the industry to voice their concerns.

“Western Australians have truly embraced Containers for Change, and we’re excited to explore this next step to take our recycling rates to another level,” Minister Whitby said.

“We’re offering an extended consultation period to ensure all affected producers, including wine makers and distillers, have the opportunity to have their say.

“Expanding the scheme would see an extra $14 million in refunds go back into the community, further rewarding those working hard to create change.”

Despite an appetite for the scheme to go national from state governments, the wine industry has been vocal in its concerns about how the proposed expansions would affect producers.

Australian Grape & Wine CEO Lee McLean described the NSW proposal as a “a kick in the guts for NSW winemakers.”

“To be clear, we are in favour of improving glass recycling in Australia. But CDS is a populist measure that has the potential to cost the Australian wine sector $100 million per annum if adopted nationally, despite driving little-to-no environmental benefit,” he said.

“The evidence – including from the New South Wales EPA’s own cost benefit analysis – shows that expanding the CDS to capture wine bottles is a sub-optimal method for increasing the collection of glass for recycling.

“The cost of expanding this sub-optimal policy approach in NSW alone would be, under our conservative estimate, approximately $30 million per year. This cost is born entirely by winemakers, who will not be able to pass cost on through the supply chain.”

Consultation for the scheme will be open to the wine industry and general public until May 2023.

 

Are you a Daily Wine News subscriber? If not, click here to join our mailing list. It’s free!