The government’s decision to abandon a beverage container return scheme is based on a false economy, according to Sue Coutts a spokesperson for Zero Waste Network. Getting rid of the policy allows big polluters to continue to dump their products at the cost of ratepayers, local councils, and the environment.
“Right now we’re paying more than we would be under a container return scheme, for a much worse outcome, where 55% of beverage containers end up as pollution in landfills or as litter on roadsides, rivers and in the ocean. A container return scheme would more fairly allocate these costs to those responsible for creating them.” say Coutts.
“The reason given for deferring the container return scheme is so families don’t face additional costs. The reality is we are all already paying to recycle single use drink containers and to clean them up when they become litter and pollution.” says Coutts. “The cost just shows up on our rates bills and in our rent costs rather than on our supermarket dockets.”
In areas with high visitor numbers, residents pick up the tab for ineffective public space recycling systems. Kerbside collections recover less than half of the single use beverage containers consumed in New Zealand each year. Councils are left with the burden of going back to their ratepayers with rates hikes to cover the cost of these suboptimal ‘solutions’.
According to Zero Waste Network: “A container return scheme puts this cost where it belongs with producers and the consumers of beverages. It covers the cost of recycling so councils don’t have to add it to their rates budgets and it creates a sustainable and effective system for collecting clean raw material for recyclers to use to make new products.”
“Around 80% of New Zealanders consistently support the introduction of container return schemes, 78% support in a recent Kantar survey commissioned by Reloop.”
“New Zealanders can see that a refundable deposit that creates an 85 to 95% return rate and a few cents on each container paid by beverage producers to cover the cost of recycling is a no-brainer policy that delivers real results at a realistic price.”
A spokesperson for Greenpeace says: “We’re in a crisis where plastic pollution is in the air we breathe, the water we drink and has even shown up in our blood and in breast milk. It’s choking our oceans and communities whose livelihoods are dependent on healthy oceans are facing the triple threat of climate change, biodiversity loss and plastic pollution. The government’s inaction will bring further harm to our most vulnerable.
Photo by Krisztian Matyas on Unsplash
