By Michael Roberts | posted on November 12, 2020
GREAT Southerners aren’t famous for embracing change, but they’ve seemingly welcomed WA’s new recycling scheme with open arms.
After a slow start, nearly 850,000 eligible drink containers have been handed into designated depots across the Great Southern during the first month of WA’s new Container for Change scheme.
In the lead up to National Recycling Week (November 9-15), more than 28 million containers were returned across WA.
Western Australia Return Recycle Renew (WARRR) CEO Tim Cusack said it was encouraging to see the amount of glass returned in the first 30 days of the initiative.
“Containers for Change has made it so easy to recycle beverage containers in WA,” he said.
“I hope the enthusiasm Great Southern residents have demonstrated for the scheme will continue and extend into general recycling practices.
“We are the first container deposit scheme in Australia to have 100 per cent bottle-to-bottle recycling from our refund points – a truly sustainable approach to recycling and manufacturing glass.”
Under the scheme, most aluminium, glass, plastic, steel and liquid paperboard drink containers between 150ml and 3L are eligible for a refund, although wine bottles aren’t included on the list.
According to WARRR, lids need to be removed from the containers but can still be recycled separately.
