Have your say on the Container Deposit Scheme draft exposure bill
If you regularly purchase drinks in containers that are eligible for a 10c refund, how often do you return the container to collect your refund?
Did you know that over 128 million eligible beverage containers were sold in the Territory last financial year? Territorians returned 78% of these containers and received over $10 million in refunds on the returned containers? But there’s more that can be done to improve.
Territorians miss out on millions of dollars of refunds on the containers that are not returned ,leading to increased refunds in the pockets of hard-working Territorians AND increased recycling rates, keeping valuable materials in the economy and out of the rubbish out of the precious NT environment and waterways.
Right now, we’re working to improve the Scheme – a well known and much-loved recycling incentive program in the Northern Territory!
We’re rolling out a community awareness campaign to encourage more Territorians to return their containers to redeem their refund. Return it, redeem it! It just makes cents 😉
We’re also asking industry and key stakeholders to provide comment on a draft Bill to introduce changes to improve the Scheme.
These changes have been informed by public consultation held last year, including feedback from community scheme participants and the businesses that make the Scheme work.
The department has released the draft Environment Protection (Beverage Containers and Plastic Bags) Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 (the draft Bill) for public consultation:
- This is a draft Bill for an Act to amend the Environment Protection (Beverage Containers and Plastic Bags) Act 2011 and the Environment Protection (Beverage Containers and Plastic Bags) Regulations 2011.
- The amendments are to give effect to changes to expand the scheme to include any container of 3L or less of ready to drink beverage, including wine and spirit bottles and plain milk.
The draft Bill if enacted it will give effect to changes in legislation to improve the scheme in line with the recommendations made in the Ernst & Young 2018 review, and community feedback on the CDS discussion paper released in March 2023.
For more information about scheme improvements, visit the department website.
Public consultation on the draft Bill is being held from 6 June – 18 July 2024. Complete the online survey on the Have Your Say website.
