National

Cheers, Qld comes up with a bottler of a recycling idea

By AAP Newswire

Apr 20, 2023

Stock image of wine bottles. — Wine and spirit bottles will soon be eligible for a 10 cent refund in Queensland. -AAP Image

Wine and spirit bottles will soon be eligible for a 10 cent refund as Queensland expands its container deposit scheme.

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The scheme has been operating for cans and smaller glass and plastic bottles since 2018, with more than 6.4 billion containers exchanged at a value of more than $630 million.

Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon said the move to expand the scheme was an Australian first and followed public consultation showing close to 100 per cent support.

"When we launched Containers for Change five years ago, only 18 per cent of beverage containers were being recovered and recycled in Queensland," she said in a statement on Thursday.

"Since then that number has grown threefold, with Queenslanders having returned more than six billion containers and receiving $630 million in return."

The addition of glass wine and spirit bottles is expected to improve glass recovery for remanufacturing, and facilities will be ready to accept the added containers from November.

"Of course, we don't want Queenslanders to pop the champagne too early, as we work with 360 container refund depots as well as wine makers and spirit distillers over the next six months to get ready for the change," Ms Scanlon said.

By AAP Newswire

Australian Associated Press