In April 2021, Environment Ministers agreed to the harmonisation of beverage containers covered by container deposit schemes (CDSs) across jurisdictions to ensure consistent recycling collection strategies. In October 2021, Heads of Environment Protection Agencies (HEPA) supported jurisdictions consulting relevant stakeholders on an expanded scope of eligible containers for their CDSs.
The proposed expanded scope of eligible containers includes:
- all beverage containers between 150 millilitres (ml) and 3 litres, other than plain milk and registered health tonics.
The proposed expanded scope would change the Western Australian CDS by including:
- grape wine and spirits in glass bottles up to 3 litres
- grape wine in plastic containers 250 ml–3 litres
- grape wine in sachets 250 ml–3 litres
- grape wine in casks 1–3 litres
- water in casks 1–3 litres
- all fruit and vegetable juice, flavoured milk and cordial containers up to 3 litres.
Consultation in South Australian showed strong support for the proposal to increase the scope of containers to be included in its CDS.
The purpose of this paper is to seek community and stakeholder feedback about this proposal. The feedback will inform the Government of Western Australia’s position.
