Beer money saved

A plan in Australia to pay cash for returning old cans and bottles for recycling has been binned because a carton of beer could go up by as much as A$5. The Australian Northern Territory Government is afraid beer and weekly shopping bills will go up if it introduced container deposit legislation (CDL).



The Northern Territory News reports that the decision to scrap the introduction of CDL has been revealed in Cabinet papers obtained by the newspaper. The cost of giving people a few cents for every bottle or beer returned would have fallen to the manufacturers and producers, but eventually this cost would be passed on to consumers.



“Now is not the time to be increasing the cost of living for Territory households,” NT Environment Minister Chris Burns said. He said other litter management strategies would now be looked at instead.



The only jurisdiction in Australia with CDL is South Australia – it offers 5c a return. CDL advocates claim it will clean up the environment and increase recycling. But NT University senior lecturer in economics Dr Ram Vemuri is not convinced about CDL. He agreed with the Cabinet decision.



“The problem in the Territory is not collection of waste, but the disposal,” he said. “The CDL legislation does not consider this.” Dr Vemuri said CDL also “glamorised” certain waste, when cans and bottles only represent about 20 per cent of all waste but are worth the most.