New Zealand 'seriously lagging behind' on deposit schemes to reduce rubbish

Wednesday, 3 October 2018

Some Kiwis remember finding bottles for pocket money as early as the 1960s – now they're tossed as worthless rubbish.

Advocates say it's possible to bring bottle-deposit schemes back, replacing pollution with a solution.

But the Ministry for the Environment says it's too early to say if they would work in New Zealand again.

Kiwi Bottle Drive campaigner Holly Dove recently travelled to London to a Container Deposit Scheme conference, and said New Zealand was 'seriously lagging behind'.

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In Oregon, brewery after brewery wanted to return to refill bottles, she said. 'I can see this being a great way to get us to shift back to having glass milk bottles here in New Zealand.'

Dove said Germany and Canada have had effective schemes for years. Australia will soon have them in all states, and England and Scotland just said yes too.

Australia has seen a 40 per cent reduction in beverage containers found on beaches, she said.

'If we want to get serious about tackling waste we need to get bottle deposits right now. Our oceans and communities simply can't wait.'

Other countries were realising pollution was more costly than the solutions, she said.

At the conference Dove spoke to Canadian global deposit expert Clarissa Morawski, who studied bottle deposit systems globally.

'She said it would be a 'real pity' if New Zealand got left behind the rest of the world.

'If we set up a deposit system now, she told me, not only do we significantly increase the recovery of bottles and cans we'll be able to collect such high quality material that we'll actually be able to manage it in New Zealand, which will ultimately create new jobs, new opportunities.'

Councils were seeing the community benefits, Dove said.

Local Government New Zealand president Dave Cull said there would be very few councils against the return of bottle deposit schemes.

'I fully acknowledge that you can't just set one up again the way it was 50 years ago and expect it to work the same way.'

Challenges would be the transportation and cost to recycle the materials, and there was a perception the cost to run schemes would be high, he said.

However, costs needed to be weighed against the cost of doing nothing, he said.

'Councils are spending a lot of money cleaning up what could be recycled.'

Research showed the benefit of a bottle-deposit scheme could be three to six times greater than the costs of running the scheme, he said.

'There needs to be evolving legislation to be able to allow councils to do certain things. There also needs to be some kind of national framework.'

A Ministry for the Environment spokeswoman said it was too early to say if the schemes were appropriate for New Zealand.

'Officials are engaging with industry, councils and community groups to explore possible options for managing beverage containers in New Zealand.'

However there would be costs to develop infrastructure, and the impact of the deposit schemes on kerbside recycling, she said.

'Container deposit schemes usually require regulations in order to be established. Such regulations are typically made at the central government level, and lead to nationwide schemes.'

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