Sunshine Coast Daily backs nationwide recycling scheme

This is today's editorial in The Sunshine Coast Daily - 18 September 2008



IN OUR OPINION

Bring back the bottle deposits

The State Government should heed calls to encourage the recycling of empty bottles through the introduction of a deposit scheme.

South Australia has had compulsory bottle deposits in place since 1977 to encourage recycling and reduce waste.

A deposit system for empty bottles in Queensland was abolished 30 years ago.

Queensland Consumer Watch spokesman Paul Tully said the time had come for a 10 cent mandatory container deposit scheme.

As he points out, it is a tragedy that millions of empty bottles are dumped at land fills around Queensland every year when they could be recycled.Generations of Queenslanders will no doubt remember the days when they could earn good pocket money by handing in bottles.

Compulsory deposits on all drink containers would be a major boost for the environment as well as performing an educational role by encouraging everyone to recycle their waste containers.

The Queensland opposition has backed the call, with environment spokesman Dave Gibson labelling the Bligh government "lazy" for ignoring community concerns over the issue.

And with South Australia recycling twice as many drink containers, it's clear the deposit scheme is worth implementing.

Let's hope the idea can be implemented nationally.


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Coca-Cola becomes an anti-environment Australian disgrace

Coca-Cola Amatil Australia has been dealt an embarrassing blow to its national credibility by the company's Corporate Affairs Director Alec Wagstaff.

Despite the overwhelming success and community acceptance of the South Australian Container Deposit Legislation (CDL), Mr Wagstaff has highlighted Coca-Cola's anti-environment and anti-Australian stance with a boots and all attack on the system.

In today's Queensland Times in Ipswich Queensland, this corporate troglodyte is quoted as saying CDL is an outdated and expensive solution.

It has not been tried in Australia outside South Australia, so how can it be outdated? As for being expensive, the consumer pays an extra 10 cents at the point of purchase which is later fully refunded. What could be fairer than that?

Coca-Cola's Corporate Affairs intellectual giant goes onto say:

"It's a very complex system.

"We've got a terrific kerbside recovery that's hassle-free and convenient.

"The challenge is to increase our recycling rate."

Is this guy for real?

Seeing that you claim to be across this complex issue, how do you explain the data from the Total Environment Centre showing that the Australian national drink container recycling rate is about 40% while in South Australia it is as high as 80%. On the latest available annual figures, 420 million drink containers in South Australia were recycled out of a total of 540 million - the highest return rate of any state or territory in Australia.

And now a spokesman for Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has said container recycling is on the agenda for a future Environment Protection and Heritage Council (EPHC) meeting, comprising state and federal environment ministers in early 2009.

But the pace of change is quickening. Are you listening Mr Wagstaff? Family First senator Steve Fielding introduced a drink container recycling bill into the Senate in March of this year, proposing a system similar to South Australia's. Tasmania, Western Australia and Victoria all have draft legislation prepared.

Coca-Cola is proving itself to be anti-environment and anti-Australian on this issue.

At a time when Australia and the rest of the world are becoming environmentally-conscious, Alec Wagstaff has been let loose on the Australian public telling us that Coca-Cola's current second-rate recycling system - outside South Australia - is better than the high-successful model which has been operating in South Australia since 1977.

Coca-Cola is a multi-national conglomerate whose corporate greed outweighs its ability to join in with a new environmental initiative which would be good for Australia, good for the environment and would be a national model for the rest of the world.

Coca-Cola could do a lot worse than dumping its Corporate Affairs Director as its national spokesman and get someone in his place who is more in tune with our evolving environment and the aspirational hopes of millions of ordinary Australians.

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