THE first month of the NSW Government’s Return and Earn Scheme is being hailed a success by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as more than 13 million containers have been returned.
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The recycling scheme commenced on December 1 and so far has seen consumers return 13, 642,000 used containers to Reverse Vending Machines (RVM’s) across the state.
An EPA spokesperson said Gunnedah was one of the top recycling sites in NSW.
“Gunnedah is one of the top 20 volume producing sites, an impressive statistic given the town’s population,” the spokesperson said.
“This is a great result and indicative of the popularity of Return and Earn across the state as more than 13 million containers have been redeemed since its commencement on December 1.”
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The spokesperson said Guyra and Armidale would soon follow Quirindi in having a Return and Earn site of their own to recycle their used containers.
“There is an over-the-counter collection point in Quirindi at Merinda Recyclers,” the spokesperson said.
“Guyra will have an RVM operational by end of this week, while Armidale will have an RVM operational in early January.”
Controversially Tamworth is still without a Return and Earn facility but the spokesperson said there will be “several” installed in January 2018.
“Tamworth will have several reverse vending machines operational by mid-January,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the EPA was very happy with the number of containers returned in the first month of the scheme.
“The volume of returned containers has almost tripled since Return and Earn commenced,” the spokesperson said.
“On Boxing Day alone, people across the state returned more than 875,000 containers, the equivalent of 60,000 containers an hour, or nearly a 1000 per minute.
“These are huge numbers, and show just how popular the scheme is and how keen people are to take part in the litter reduction initiative.”
For more information about the scheme or to find your nearest collection point visit www.returnandearn.org.au
Billy Jupp
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
