If you’ve got plenty of wine and spirit bottles around from a big Saturday night, don’t throw them in the recycling bin just yet…
The NSW Government’s Return and Earn scheme is set to expand to include all glass wine and spirit bottles as well as larger containers up to 3-litres.
Since the scheme started in 2017, more than eight billion containers have been recycled across the state resulting in $800 million in refunds to people with $35 million to community groups and charities.
Hunter residents have been taking full advantage of the scheme with Lake Macquarie using the return and earn program the fifth most in the state having returned more than 274.65 million containers since 2017 and Newcastle isn’t too far behind having returned just over 200.67 million.
Minister for Environment James Griffin said public consultation is now open on the planned expansion, which would see up to an additional 400 million eligible bottles recycled each year, including 233 million glass bottles.
“We already accept beer, cider and a range of other beverage containers through Return and Earn, and now we are looking to include glass wine and spirits bottles and larger drink containers,” James Griffin said.
“Return and Earn began as a litter reduction tool, and since then, it’s become incredibly popular with almost 80 per cent of adults in NSW having used the scheme, which has more than 620 return points across the State.
“The scheme expansion would boost recycling rates, reduce landfill, and supercharge our push towards a circular economy in NSW.”
Consultation is now open on the Scheme’s expansion, which would see almost all beverage containers between 150 ml and 3 litres accepted for refund like wine and spirits in glass bottles, cordials and juice concentrate and larger containers up to 3 litres of beverages already in the scheme, such as flavoured milk, fruit and vegetable juice, cask wine and sachets. Plain milk and health tonics would continue to be excluded from the scheme.
The NSW Environment Protection Authority will be holding targeted stakeholder information sessions and webinars in the coming months around NSW so a transition can be as smooth as possible for new suppliers to the scheme.