It’s an idea whose time has come. Or one that is long past due, depending on your point of view.

Explain the idea of a container deposit scheme to the uninitiated and the response is: “It’s a no-brainer. Let’s do it.” For those familiar with overseas schemes, the reaction is one of frustration. “Should have been done here 20 years ago,” they say.

A Container Deposit Scheme (or CDS for short) places a mandatory refundable deposit on all beverage containers to encourage their recycling. Such schemes operate successfully in many countries – including, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands – and for good reason.

Recycling rates of 85 per cent and higher are common in jurisdictions with a CDS. Popularity ratings for the schemes are well over 90 per cent. Jobs are created, costs saved, and litter reduced. Some programmes even run at a surplus. A no-brainer, indeed.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch – I mean, here in New Zealand – it’s quite a different story. In spite of two Packaging Accords, publicly-funded voluntary initiatives, and an empowering Waste Minimisation Act, recycling rates for beverage containers remain low – less than 40 per cent and possibly as low as 30 per cent.

These figures are part of a compelling argument for change in The InCENTive to Recycle: The Case for a Container Deposit Scheme in NZ, a report recently released by Envision New Zealand. The report is calling for CDS to be introduced here in 2017.

In 2007, Envision NZ developed a CDS model suitable for the New Zealand setting. Eight years on, this new report revisits and updates that model based on national and international developments.

The statistics are staggering. Kiwis consume some 2.23 billion beverage containers annually. Nearly 46,000 tonnes of them are discarded into the litter stream, waterways and landfills each year. This is equivalent to 700 Boeing 747s filled with containers every year!

The CDS model proposed in the report is based on international best practice and should appeal to the Government. It is a market-based instrument proven viable, effective and efficient at achieving high return rates for beverage containers at no cost to them.

It should also be popular with local councils and ratepayers. Councils currently spend time and money emptying public rubbish bins and clearing beverage containers off streets and from parks and waterways. Estimated annual savings in refuse collection by instituting a container deposit scheme is between $26 and $40 million.

Then there’s job creation. Some 200 bottle-return stations, which could be operated by councils, local businesses, social enterprises or community groups, will require about 2,400 staff. These will include entry-level to managerial positions throughout the country. Many of the jobs will be quite suitable for individuals with a disability and for those coming off unemployment benefits or seeking casual or part-time work.

There will be great gains for the marine environment, too. Plastic bottles can break down into micro particles and be ingested by small fish mistaking them for plankton, while bottle tops can be mistaken as food by fish and birds. Removing this rubbish from the environment is a win all around.

Details of the NZ CDS model are clearly described in the Envision NZ report at www.envision-nz.com. (There’s also a quick read entitled “FAQs – Container Deposits”.)

New Zealand is blessed with more than its share of talented resource recovery/waste minimisation professionals working with councils, non-profits, in business and as consultants. Their energy and the efforts of the Community Recycling Network can surely help turn the CDS dream into reality.

It’s time for the packaging industry, which has traditionally opposed this much needed product stewardship initiative, to come to the party too. Cost to industry and consumers for the scheme would be 0.5 cents – yes, that’s one-half cent – per container.

Individually we can contact the Minister for the Environment, our elected MPs, and our local councils to voice our support for change.

It’s easy enough for the Government to put the legal structures in place for a CDS under Part 2 of the Waste Minimisation Act 1998.

What’s stopping them?

Gord Stewart is an environmental sustainability consultant. He does project work for government, industry, and non-profit organisations.

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