“Last year, Mr Baird committed to a world’s best-practice container deposit recycling system by 2017. Now Coke is lobbying hard to get him to break his promise by choosing its own plan, which won’t solve our enormous litter problem,” said Greenpeace Australia Pacific campaigner, Nathaniel Pelle.
Mimicking signature Coke ads, the Greenpeace video shows a beach strewn with some of the more than 40 million bottles and cans that are littered in NSW over summer.
“Best-practice container deposit systems are the only recycling plans proven to work. A successful system, which returns 10c to consumers or community groups for every bottle or can recycled, has been used in South Australia for 30 years and practically eliminated drink bottle litter.
“In NSW, drink containers make up at least 44 per cent of all litter. Globally, the equivalent of a garbage truck load of plastic ends up in the ocean every minute - that’s eight million tonnes a year - and the rate is rising. It’s choking our seas, and killing birds and marine life.
“We cannot have a fizzy drinks company dictating our waste policy or blocking effective solutions to a major global pollution problem,” said Pelle.
- At least 160 million drink containers are littered in NSW every year
- South Australia has a 10c container deposit system that achieves 80% recycling rates, around double the rate in other states.
- Drink containers make up at least 44% of all litter in NSW but only 2.2% in South Australia.
- 8 million tonnes of plastic waste enters the ocean every year
- Between a third and a quarter of global marine debris is beverage industry-related.
Coca-Cola has a history of fighting container deposit schemes around the world. In 2013, it spent thousands of dollars lobbying the Northern Territory government - ultimately going to court - to fight the introduction of a similar scheme.
The NSW Government is currently inviting the public to make submissions on litter policy, and is set to choose between the container deposit system Premier Baird promised, and Coke’s alternative, within months.
“Everyone who wants clean beaches and parks should let their local MP know we want the recycling plan the NSW government promised, not the watered-down scheme that Coke is pushing for,” said Pelle.
Greenpeace, Clean Up Australia, The Total Environment Centre and 30 other community groups are working together as the Boomerang Alliance to ensure NSW gets the promised world’s best-practice container deposit legislation.
Consumers can visit stoptrashingaustralia.com to tell their MP that they want a 10c refund on their containers.
ENDS