A national Container Deposit Levy (CDL) is expected to cost Australians almost $500 million a year and would trash almost $70 million worth of highly successful industry-led kerbside recycling and packaging waste programs.
The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) and beverage industry leaders today warned that CDL – where consumers pay up to 14c* extra for containers – could cost about $500 million a year to run and consumers would face much higher prices for bottled and canned beverages, including beer and softdrinks.
Industry leaders expect the CDL costings to be confirmed by an independent report to be considered by Environment Ministers when they meet in Hobart later this month to map out Australia’s recycling future.
AFGC Chief Executive Kate Carnell urged Environment Ministers to emphatically reject the significantly more expensive CDL approach and urged Ministers to continue the world-leading National Packaging Covenant co-regulatory arrangement, involving recycling programs worth $68.3 million.
Ms Carnell said the choice for Ministers on Friday, May 22 between the two schemes was simple arithmetic.
“Environment Minsters must once and for all reject the expensive CDL scheme which we believe will cost Australians a whopping $500 million a year compared to the current affordable and effective model,” Ms Carnell said.
The National Packaging Covenant – which has been operating for the past 10 years – is a cooperative agreement between industry and Government and NGOs to manage packaging waste.
Ms Carnell said CDL would deliver a crushing blow to the future viability of kerbside recyclers and investment in Australia. She highlighted that the Covenant was a more efficient method of recycling, required no charges for collection and provided much better value for money.
Continuing the National Packaging Covenant would cost $6 million a year, jointly provided by industry and government, (compared with $500m for CDL). Under the current recycling approach, Australia’s packaging recycling rates have risen from below 40 per cent to almost 60 per cent over the past five years.
The Covenant has to capacity to divert an additional 500,000 tonnes of packaging from landfill each year.
Coca-Cola Amatil Managing Director Australia Warwick White said renewing the highly successful Covenant was vital as it allowed Australia to continue to lead the world in developing sustainable management of packaging.
“Australian companies want to be focussing on investing in innovative solutions for environmental problems, not suffering huge additional costs from a 1970s regulatory approach,” Mr White said.
Keep Australia Beautiful National Chairman Don Chambers said the Covenant was the envy of many countries including England, Ireland and the US.
“They cannot believe that we are able to have all levels of governments, industry and NGOs in the same room collectively working on how to improve packaging recycling rates.”
ENDS
For more information contact: Brad Watts AFGC Media Adviser on (02) 6270 9021 or 0437 379 818.
* Based on a 10 cent deposit and a four cent handling fee, the cost of a carton of beer would increase by $4 to $5.
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