Bottler of an idea

By CASEY NEILL
CLEMATIS environment campaigner Peter Cook has taken his fight for a container deposit scheme to the steps of Parliament.
He coordinated a Spring Street rally on 15 August for Australians for Refunds on Cans and Bottles (AFROCAB).
The group held up a banner that said eight billion drink containers were not recycled in Australia every year.
“These either go to landfill or become litter,” he said.
“Put another way, figures from the 2006 Keep Australia Beautiful National Litter Index showed that drink containers are the number one litter item by volume and the number three litter item by quantity.”
Mr Cook and AFROCAB are calling for legislation to create a can and bottle refund scheme similar to that in South Australia.
In June the Mail reported that the group had built a boat from plastic bottles to highlight their fight.
Mr Cook said the exchange program would turn roadside trash that cost money to clean up into something that would benefit the community as well as the environment.
“Scouts in South Australia make over $1 million a year on cans and bottles and that could apply all over Australia,” he said.
But Australian Beverages Council CEO Geoff Parker this month urged all environment ministers to reject a container deposit scheme.
He said it would penalise consumers and damage small and medium Australian manufacturers.
“The costs of setting up and running a deposit scheme are huge, and these will be passed on to consumers on top of the 10 cent deposit fee,” he said.
“The net impact could be price rises of up to 20 cents per container, which would slug families an additional $400 annually for the average shopping basket.”
But Mr Cook said South Australia started its deposit system more than 30 years ago and its public approval rating was about 80 per cent.
“If their container deposit system had the price impacts he claims it would not be so popular,” he said.
Mr Cook also said the beverage industry had failed to suggest a viable alternative solution.
Lyster Ward Councillor Samantha Dunn said Mr Parker’s claims amounted to “scaremongering”.
“Have we seen the end of small business in South Australia because of container deposit legislation? No,” she said.
“If a container deposit scheme is introduced, beverage containers will have a value attached to them, something they don’t have now.”