Greens MLC Colleen Hartland has congratulated New York for extending its "Bottle Bill" container deposit system to include bottled water.
"The Bigger Better Bottle Bill sends a message to the world: If they can do it, we can", said Greens MLC Colleen Hartland.
"It's interesting to see that they recognise the tremendous economic benefit to taxpayers, as well as the obvious environmental benefit."
"It's the same here in Victoria, where local councils and their rate payers currently foot the bill for rubbish and litter. A 10c deposit system would save councils $15.2 million, by shifting the cost away from councils towards those who create the litter. Our scheme would be self funding from a $63.5 million unredeemed deposit fund."*
"My legislation will include all drink containers from the beginning, from water bottles to beer cans. This means we'll never have to retrofit our legislation to include new drinks. But it's good to see that in New York they recognise that container deposits have worked well there for nearly 30 years, and they see the benefit in extending the program."
"We have the advantage of looking to the world to see how drink container deposits are working. Like in California, where the scheme not only funds itself, but pays for education programs about recycling. Like in Norway, where there are 9,000 depots, including thousands of Reverse Vending Machines. Like in South Australia, where the increase in deposit from 5c to 10c has caused 19 million additional containers to be returned in three months. Even the Northern Territory is leading the way by announcing drink container deposits a few weeks ago."
"The world is sending us a message – that drink container deposits work, environmentally, financially and socially. 94% of Victorians support drink container deposits. The only question is whether the government is ready to listen."
* Ms Hartland released her report "Turning Rubbish into Community Money: The benefits of a 10c deposit on drink containers in Victoria" on 31 March. http://mps.vic.greens.org.au/10cdeposit
Further comment: Colleen Hartland 9689 6373
******************************************* Liz Ingham Office of Colleen Hartland MLC Western Metropolitan Region
A: 75 Victoria Street, Seddon 3011 P: 9689 6373 M: 0409 333 595 F: 9689 6227 E: elizabeth.ingham@parliament.vic.gov.au W: http://mps.vic.greens.org.au
