Sue Mitchell
Sep 25, 2019
AFR
Coca-Cola Amatil is bracing for a potential hit to soft drink and bottled water volumes when New Zealand introduces a container deposit scheme next year.
The New Zealand government announced on Wednesday that work was under way to launch a container deposit scheme by August 2020.
Beverage containers such as plastic and glass bottles, and cans, will carry a refundable deposit – likely to be between 10¢ and 20¢ – redeemable when containers are returned to collection points.
Greenpeace hailed the decision as a “breakthrough moment for plastic waste in New Zealand”.
Only half the 2 billion single-use beverage containers sold in New Zealand each year are recycled.
Based on the impact of container deposit schemes introduced in NSW in December 2017 and Queensland in November 2018, the scheme is likely to dent beverage volumes in New Zealand as bottlers including Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) and Asahi raise prices to cover the refundable deposit.
CCA said container deposit schemes contributed to a 3.4 per cent fall in beverage volumes in NSW in 2018, and had a “material” impact on volumes in Queensland in November and December that year, dragging national volumes down 1.3 per cent.
Volumes in Queensland fell 3.8 per cent in the first half of 2019, mainly because of the scheme, denting national volumes by 1.2 per cent.
CCA is hoping volumes will improve in the two states once the container deposit schemes are embedded. However, similar schemes are due to be launched in Western Australia in June 2020 and Tasmania in 2022, leaving Victoria as the only state yet to introduce a such a program.
New Zealand & Fiji has been CCA’s best performing market in recent years, prompting the bottler to replicate successful sales initiatives such as “feet on the street” in Australia to increase sales.
‘Something of value’
New Zealand and Fiji earnings rose 7.3 per cent and volumes climbed 6.1 per cent in 2018. The momentum accelerated in 2019 – profits were up 15.1 per cent and volumes 5.3 per cent in the first half.
New Zealand’s Associate Minister for the Environment, Eugenie Sage, said on Wednesday a container deposit scheme would change the way people viewed beverage containers.
“They would again become something of value, and we would see increased recycling and new opportunities for refilling,” Ms Sage told a waste and recycling conference in Hamilton.
“A well-designed beverage container return scheme would be a win for consumers, the environment, councils, and recycling industries,” she said.
CCA has also won a three-year licence to exclusively supply beverages to the new 30,000-seat Bankwest Stadium, which opened in April after the Parramatta Stadium was demolished. It had held the contract for the Parramatta Stadium.
The licence covers non-alcoholic beverage distribution to the stadium’s 27 food outlets.
CCA’s managing director of Australian Beverages, Peter West, said the partnership with Bankwest Stadium reflected the bottler’s long-term commitment to Western Sydney.
CCA has bottling and distribution facilities in Northmead, Eastern Creek and Seven Hills.
Bankwest Stadium has its own “return and earn” container deposit point, where bottles and cans are collected on site for recycling and reuse. Proceeds from collection go to Western Sydney charities.
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