{"id":112238,"date":"2025-12-16T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/tweedcoasttimes\/?p=112238"},"modified":"2025-12-10T18:51:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T07:51:14","slug":"celebrating-eight-years-of-return-and-earn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/tweedcoasttimes\/news\/celebrating-eight-years-of-return-and-earn\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating eight years of Return and Earn"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW South Wales’ container deposit scheme, Return and Earn, has marked eight years of successful recycling, refunding and keeping litter out of the environment.<\/p>\n

Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin said a total of 410,523,469 containers had been recycled within the Lismore electorate and surrounding areas.<\/p>\n

The figure includes 219,918,405 containers in Tweed, 108,452,980 in Lismore, and 51,842,200 in the Byron Shire.<\/p>\n

The project’s impact across the state includes over 14.7 billion drink containers returned through the NSW network of more than 660 return points and over $1.4 billion in container refunds returned to recyclers.<\/p>\n

Since launching on December 1, 2017, Return and Earn has changed behaviour, making recycling part of residents’ everyday routines.<\/p>\n

The program has also become a fundraising platform for many charities and community groups, with more than $82 million raised from donations and hosting fees for return points since the scheme began.<\/p>\n

Return and Earn has released the latest Local Government Area Network Volume Report, which shows eight years of enthusiastic community participation in the scheme by council area.<\/p>\n

The report said local councils were vital partners in helping their communities to reduce litter and recycle more through the scheme.<\/p>\n

“Many councils make it easy by hosting return points and encouraging locals to get involved,” the report stated.<\/p>\n

“They also benefit from refunds earned through kerbside recycling, which go back into local projects and help keep the scheme thriving.”<\/p>\n

Residents can enter their community’s container volume into the Return and Earn Impact<\/p>\n

Calculator to see the equivalent water, energy, and landfill savings, as well as the CO2 emissions avoided.<\/p>\n

Households should check the live status of their nearest return point on the Return and Earn app or website before visiting.<\/p>\n

For more information, visit returnandearn.org.au<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW South Wales’ container deposit scheme, Return and Earn, has marked eight years of successful recycling, refunding and keeping litter out of the environment. Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin said a total of 410,523,469 containers had been recycled within the Lismore electorate and surrounding areas. The figure includes 219,918,405 containers in Tweed, 108,452,980 in Lismore, […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":112239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-112238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCelebrating eight years of Return and Earn - Tweed Coast Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Return and Earn celebrates eight years of recycling success, with billions of containers refunded and strong community participation statewide.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/tweedcoasttimes\/news\/celebrating-eight-years-of-return-and-earn\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Celebrating eight years of Return and Earn - 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