Containers for Change prices announced

Beverage manufacturers have been informed of the prices for Western Australia’s container deposit scheme on Friday, with the average price of a container starting at 11.65 cents.

Containers for Change, beginning on June 2 and run by not-for-profit organisation Western Australia Return Recycle Renew, is a product stewardship scheme where manufacturers pay for the recycling of used products.  

The estimated cost to the manufacturer per container by material type will start at 11.39 cents for aluminium, 11.84 cents for glass, 11.85 cents for HDPE, 11.76 cents for PET and 12.17 cents for LPB, excluding GST.

WARRRL chief executive Tim Cusack said with advance notice of the price, and extensive program of industry consultations, the beverage industry has every opportunity to be ready for the scheme’s launch.

“We believe the Containers for Change scheme strikes a balance between making sure there are enough funds to pay scheme costs while keeping the costs as low as reasonably possible for first responsible suppliers,” he said.

“Our commitment is to deliver an efficient, convenient and accessible container deposit scheme at the lowest cost possible.”

A statement from WARRRL said prices for containers would change over time, but the intention was to provide the market with sufficient notice of any changes and to keep the price stable.

Containers for Change will provide a 10-cent refund to the public when containers are returned for recycling at an approved refund point.

WARRRL says the scheme will reduce littered containers by 706 million and cut the number of containers sent to landfill by 5.9 million, as well as lead to an increase in recycled containers of 6.6 billion.

It will also provide jobs with 40 per cent of refund points to be operated by social enterprises including charities, disability sector organisations, Aboriginal corporations, sporting and community groups; 20 per cent by local government; and 40 per cent by commercial entities.

The 145 refund locations were chosen in January, and location and opening hours will be announced in May.

Disability services organisation Ability Centre is running three of these refund collection points.

WA is the sixth state or territory to adopt a container deposit scheme.