Cash for cans under new Canberra scheme to start early next year

No_Nose said :

Whenever I visit South Australia for in-law family gatherings the young nieces and nephews always bring their own bags to the party and all vie to take home as many empty stubbies, soft drink cans, juice containers and similar as possible. As there are 9 of them, and I don’t want to play favourites, I always have 9 (or multiples of 9) beers on each occasion. Its a sacrifice, but I’m up for the challenge.

The system has worked for years in S.A. and it does seem popular, particularly with kids as a means of supplementing their pocket money.

That was certainly my experience, growing up as a kid in SA. Local footy matches were a gold mine!

wildturkeycanoe said :

If the Mitchell tip were chosen as a drop off location, I’d need to take 70 bottles just to break even with fuel cost. Then I would also need enough more to make it worthwhile, say 100 bottles for a tenner? How long will it take to count them all, considering they can’t weigh them as bottles are different sizes? 100 two litre milk bottles is equivalent to two cubic metres, so you also need a ute or trailer. Will this effort be embraced by Canberrans? Maybe, maybe not. I think the financial enticement won’t be enough to really make people change their habits much. Chucking a bottle in the long grass is so much easier than carrying it to the nearest bin or home. Those dumping rubbish now likely won’t change their habits for 10 cents, as fines of several hundred dollars have done little to stop drivers using phones behind the wheel.
But, despite all this, at least they are trying something to clean up the place.

Totally agree with that.

The Minister clearly states that the motivation to introduce this expensive “feel good” scheme is to reduce litter which to most people means rubbish that is discarded outside of purpose intended facilities (which are few and far between in the ACT)
“Drink containers make up more than a quarter of the volume of all litter in the ACT and this scheme will help protect the environment and improve the look and feel of our city.”

This scheme will not change the habits of people currently creating the litter problem. The solution is to allocate more TAMS ground staff to the worst areas to recover the stuff and to provide more garbage/recycle bins (bins that look like bins and not those incredibly expensive
public art” type ones) in problem areas.

I assume this is being rolled out because there’s no reason not to do it, i.e. it supplements the existing recycling program. Does seem a bit counter intuitive though. I’m interested to see the details – where will you drop off containers and how will you be paid the rebate? I’m also assuming it will be more hassle to stockpile containers at home for months and cash them in, rather than just recycling at home.

I remember long before we had recycling we used to collect cans in the neighbourhood. But geez, how about inflation? 10c is not much of an incentive to go looking for litter these days?

However I’ve also spent time in Canada and Denmark – was worth your while to host a huge party and cash in a couple of hundred bottles the next day!

I predict the scheme will encourage the enterprising neighbourhood pre teens to make some reasonable dollars, just like happened way back when. They will likely maximise profits by adding a bit of sand to each can before crushing and getting weighed, and by knocking on doors offering to take your empties off your hands. Another opportunity would be to go around local worksites and either collecting what bottles and cans tradies discard for the owner to find among the bushes later, or by merely opening the passenger door on their utes and watching thd debris fall out.

Whenever I visit South Australia for in-law family gatherings the young nieces and nephews always bring their own bags to the party and all vie to take home as many empty stubbies, soft drink cans, juice containers and similar as possible. As there are 9 of them, and I don’t want to play favourites, I always have 9 (or multiples of 9) beers on each occasion. Its a sacrifice, but I’m up for the challenge.

The system has worked for years in S.A. and it does seem popular, particularly with kids as a means of supplementing their pocket money.

wildturkeycanoe said :

If the Mitchell tip were chosen as a drop off location, I’d need to take 70 bottles just to break even with fuel cost. Then I would also need enough more to make it worthwhile, say 100 bottles for a tenner? How long will it take to count them all, considering they can’t weigh them as bottles are different sizes? 100 two litre milk bottles is equivalent to two cubic metres, so you also need a ute or trailer. Will this effort be embraced by Canberrans? Maybe, maybe not. I think the financial enticement won’t be enough to really make people change their habits much. Chucking a bottle in the long grass is so much easier than carrying it to the nearest bin or home. Those dumping rubbish now likely won’t change their habits for 10 cents, as fines of several hundred dollars have done little to stop drivers using phones behind the wheel.
But, despite all this, at least they are trying something to clean up the place.

I grew up in Queensland in the 1970s, and a similar scheme was in place. We’d go scavenging and find bottles and cans, take them to a designated recycling place, and collect the money. It was usually reinvested at the corner store in lollies.

Garfield said :

And all those thousands of people like me who already recycle all their containers will now have to separate them out from the household recycling and take a trip somewhere to get the deposit back, or just keep putting them in the recycling and end up out of pocket.

Garfield said :

And all those thousands of people like me who already recycle all their containers will now have to separate them out from the household recycling and take a trip somewhere to get the deposit back, or just keep putting them in the recycling and end up out of pocket.

Maybe people will now see the folly in buying water in plastic bottles and start filling a container from the home tap which delivers Canberrans the best “first crush” water in the world.

Why aren’t we bottling this stuff and selling it overseas instead of having a few token bottles in restaurants?….hey, Brendan, where are you?

Garfield said :

And all those thousands of people like me who already recycle all their containers will now have to separate them out from the household recycling and take a trip somewhere to get the deposit back, or just keep putting them in the recycling and end up out of pocket.

Maybe people will now see the folly in buying water in plastic bottles and start filling a container from the home tap which delivers Canberrans the best “first crush” water in the world.

Why aren’t we bottling this stuff and selling it overseas instead of having a few token bottles in restaurants?….hey, Brendan, where are you?

My world has been turned upside down – I agree with Dungfungus.

And can I also say to Garfield – maybe you can organise a neighbourhood co-op and make some money.

If the Mitchell tip were chosen as a drop off location, I’d need to take 70 bottles just to break even with fuel cost. Then I would also need enough more to make it worthwhile, say 100 bottles for a tenner? How long will it take to count them all, considering they can’t weigh them as bottles are different sizes? 100 two litre milk bottles is equivalent to two cubic metres, so you also need a ute or trailer. Will this effort be embraced by Canberrans? Maybe, maybe not. I think the financial enticement won’t be enough to really make people change their habits much. Chucking a bottle in the long grass is so much easier than carrying it to the nearest bin or home. Those dumping rubbish now likely won’t change their habits for 10 cents, as fines of several hundred dollars have done little to stop drivers using phones behind the wheel.
But, despite all this, at least they are trying something to clean up the place.

Garfield said :

And all those thousands of people like me who already recycle all their containers will now have to separate them out from the household recycling and take a trip somewhere to get the deposit back, or just keep putting them in the recycling and end up out of pocket.

Maybe people will now see the folly in buying water in plastic bottles and start filling a container from the home tap which delivers Canberrans the best “first crush” water in the world.

Why aren’t we bottling this stuff and selling it overseas instead of having a few token bottles in restaurants?….hey, Brendan, where are you?

And all those thousands of people like me who already recycle all their containers will now have to separate them out from the household recycling and take a trip somewhere to get the deposit back, or just keep putting them in the recycling and end up out of pocket.