Baillieu retreats on bottle refund scheme

Clay Lucas
March 5, 2012
The Age

Waste not, want not: Premier Ted Baillieu has retreated from introducing a bottle container deposit scheme – a measure he supported in opposition.

OF THE 16,000 tonnes of rubbish picked up on Clean Up Australia Day, almost a quarter was estimated to be drink bottles.

Despite this, the Baillieu government has retreated from introducing a bottle container deposit scheme – an idea that it supported in opposition, and that has drastically reduced landfill in South Australia.

In a report tabled in Parliament last week, the government said it would not back the bottle refund scheme. Instead, it will turn to a national body and let it decide if container deposit legislation is a good idea.

In opposition, Ted Baillieu and several of his ministers – including Ports Minister Denis Napthine and Health Minister David Davis – supported a bottle refund scheme.

Now Environment Minister Ryan Smith, who also supported a refund scheme in opposition, will not say when he expects a national bottle refund scheme might be established.

A national container deposit scheme has been under consideration by a federal grouping, the Environment and Heritage Protection Council, since July 2010. This council will not decide until late 2012 if it is a good idea.

Mr Smith said it would make no economic sense for Victoria to launch its own bottle refund system, and would instead wait for a decision from the council.

Mr Smith declined to say whether the government still supported a bottle refund scheme for Victoria, instead saying only that Victoria supported a national scheme.

The Northern Territory government in January launched its own bottle refund scheme, in part because it had given up waiting for Canberra to act.

The federal Environment Department in 2010 estimated about 10 billion plastic and glass bottles were sold each year in Australia.
Clean Up Australia Day chairman and founder Ian Kiernan yesterday expressed disappointment the Baillieu government had abandoned its support for a state scheme.

Mr Kiernan blamed ”the power of the beverage industry” for the lack of support by governments across Australia.

Polling in 2009 by Clean Up Australia found 86 per cent of Victorians supported container deposit laws.

Mr Kiernan estimated that 24 per cent of the waste collected across Australia yesterday would be bottles. Only in South Australia – which has offered a refund for drink bottles since 1972 – would this be different, he said.

There, 90 per cent of drink bottles are refunded and recycled, compared to just 35 per cent in other states.

The NT’s new laws from January forced beverage suppliers to provide a 10¢ bottle refund. The laws have been fiercely opposed by Coca-Cola Amatil.

Lobbyists point out that bottle refund schemes are common overseas, including in many parts of the United States, most of Canada and in Europe.

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