By Helena Adeloju
The introduction of a Cash for Containers scheme in Victoria could be immensely successful if the response of children at the PAVE festival is anything to go by.
The Boomerang Alliance and Australians for Refunds on Cans and Bottles (AFROCAB) demonstrated how the scheme would work by making the Cash for Container refund scheme a reality for a day at the Funfest in Emerald on Sunday 2 April.
One boy cleaned out the entire carpark, pocketing 10 cents for each of the 50 bottles he collected.
Boomerang Alliance Community Campaigner Annette Finger said she attended the festival to support the (AFROCAB) stall and to help raise awareness.
Up to 200 bottles and cans were collected and 200 people signed the petition, supporting the introduction of a container deposit scheme in Victoria.
Ms Finger said that by next year Victoria would be the only mainland state without a container deposit scheme, even though there was overwhelming community support for the idea.
“South Australia has had a refund scheme since 1977, and the Northern Territory since 2011,” Ms Finger said.
“New South Wales will start one in December this year and Queensland and Western Australia are set to follow in 2018.”
She said a large amount of waste could be removed from the environment by introducing a scheme that targeted one of the biggest sources of litter.
“40 percent of the litter in the environment is from beverage containers,” Ms Finger said. “We can reduce that, and the best way to do that is with a container deposit scheme.”
“Experience has shown that education alone is not going to stop litter, so putting value on addressing the issue is important,” she said.
