ACT

Name of Program

Waste Management and Resource Recovery Amendment Bill 2017

Law Summary

"Objects of the bill are-

(a) establish a cost effective container deposit scheme to assist the beverage industry in reducing and dealing with waste generated by beverage product packaging; and

(b) promote the recovery, reuse and recycling of empty beverage containers." [1]

Date Implemented

6/30/2018

Beverages Covered

Beverages in the following containers that are ≥150mL or ≤3L [2]:

Cans (e.g. soft drinks)
Bottles (e.g. beer bottles)
Cartons (e.g. flavoured milk)
Juice boxes and poppers

Beverages Not Covered

Milk containers
Glass wine bottles
Glass spirit bottles
Pure juice containers over 1 litre
Cordial bottles

Amount of Deposit

10¢ AUD

Fees and Taxes

Beverage suppliers pay EFC administrative costs, a "network fee" for the Network Operator, and a "Compliance fee", which change monthly. This is sent out in the EFC's monthly Supplier Newsletters. [3]

Unclaimed Deposts

N/A; producers are charged a "producer fee" based on the number of containers returned versus revenue generated from the sale of material. [4]

Program Success

	2018-2019 [5]	2019-2020[6]	2020-2021[7]	2021-2022[8]
Overall	50.36%	50%	68%	75%
Aluminum	19.84%	68%	77%	83%
Glass	14.92%	52%	67%	93%
HDPE	1.03%	24%	39%	63%
PET	14.17%	37%	74%	61%
Liquid Paperboard	0.38%	15%	15%	17%
Other plastics/materials	0%	0%	0%	0%

More Information

The ACT CDS operates as a ‘partnership’ between the Government and the beverage container industry:

The Scheme Coordinator, Exchange for Change, manages scheme finances and auditing.
The Network Operator, Re.Turn It, manages the network of collection points. There is currently only one Network Operator, although other operators are not precluded from the ACT CDS.
Government, manages compliance with the legislation along with instruments and documents made within the legislative framework. [9]

The collection network is predominantly manual depot-based, with a government preference for ‘face-to-face’ drop off facilities, replicating the South Australian scheme, as well as charity sector shop drop offs and other social enterprise involvement. There are currently 19 collection points, with three being depots with cash refunds for consumers. Two of these depots have automated counting. The other collection points are "bag-drop" collection points, supermarkets, a community group, and charity stores. Curbside redemption is also eligible, with the 10-cent refund shared between the government and the Material Recovery Facility operator.

Consumers may leave eligible containers as part of their general curbside recycling; if they do so, material recovery facility (MRF) operators may make a claim for the 10¢ refund for each container collected through curbside collection bins. MRF operators are audited by Exchange for Change at least quarterly.

The ACT deposit scheme is highly successful, with over 181 million containers being returned through the 19 collection points, as of June 2022. [10]

In April 2021, the ACT Government announced that it will consult in 2023 on expanding the scheme to include new containers such as wine bottles, spirit, and cordial bottles to harmonize container deposit schemes across Australia by the end of 2025. [11] The public can submit feedback on the expansion proposal from May 30, 2023 until August 22, 2023. A report on the submitted feedback plans is to be released in September 2023.