High demand for cash for cans in the region

SINCE its launch last November, the Container Deposit Scheme has seen communities throughout the state support the recycling program.

According to the Victorian State Government, at least 100 million containers have been recycled statewide, resulting in refunds of up to $10 million.

A list of the top 10 highest yielding collection points in regional Victoria included Bendigo’s two sites, which Premier Jacinta Allan said is indicative of the scheme’s popularity.

“It does speak to there’s huge demand in our community and there are other collection points that continue to be available in and around the Bendigo community,” she said.

Interest in the CDS in the region is high with the Envirobank sites in Kangaroo Flat and East Bendigo processing a combined 3.8 million containers, yet out of 400 refund points in Victoria only two are located in Bendigo.

The recent closure of Bendigo Foodshare’s over the counter refund point has led some to question the management of the CDS rollout in Northern Victoria by zone operator Visy.

Upper house Northern Victoria MP Gaelle Broad said it was disappointing that after two months one of Bendigo’s collection points had already closed.

“Visy needs to look at the demand and look at the response in regional Victoria and make sure there’s the appropriate resources in place for the scheme to run effectively,” she said.

“If you want to maintain it, they’ve got to be accessible.

“I know, just myself going to Bendigo East, it’s in an industrial area kind of near Bendigo Airport so I think for most families it would be an extra trip.

“You’ve got to put them in high profile locations as well to encourage people to make it part of their every day and I think that’s something that certainly needs to be looked at for Bendigo.”

The State government agreement with VicReturn, the organisation that manages the CDS in Victoria, requires that in regional populations there needs to be one site per 14,500 people.

Minister for Environment, Steve Dimopoulous, said by the end of the CDS rollout in August, Bendigo will end up with more sites than required.

“It will end up I reckon, better than the requirement of one site per 14,500 residents, particularly for Bendigo,” he said.

With plans for a total of 600 sites across the state by the end of the 10-month rollout, Mr Dimopoulous said early hiccups were not an indicator of the scheme’s failure.

“When you start this scheme, given you’ve got over the counter sites, small businesses, standalone sites, it’s really hard to get every site to match the demand of that community,” he said.

In contrast to Bendigo’s two sites, Ballarat, a city with a similar population, has two depots operating as well as several automated reverse-vending machines.

“I don’t think it’s reasonable to take one point in the timeline of a 10-month rollout and compare Bendigo and Ballarat, I think what’s important is to see where we end up in August this year,” Mr Dimopoulous said.

Visy and VicReturn were contacted for comment on this story but did not respond by the time of publication.