Tweed Shire Council is trialling a new container deposit and collection scheme aimed at reducing waste to landfill while enabling community members to 'pay it forward' to allow others to reap the benefits.
Council has installed container deposit and collection points beside 24 public bins in Jack Evans Boat Harbour at Tweed Heads, Rowan Robinson Park at Kingscliff and Knox Park in Murwillumbah.
Members of the public can deposit a container at a purpose-built bottle return point, and another community member, group or charity can collect it and take it to a Return and Earn location for a 10-cent refund per eligible item.
Council's Director of Sustainable Communities and Environment Naomi Searle said the scheme had both community and environmental benefits.
"These container collection points are designed to boost the diversion of recyclable materials from landfill," Ms Searle said.
"In local parks where recycling bins are available, contamination from incorrect recycling often results in these materials ending up in landfill and we know that waste that goes to landfill remains in the environment forever.
"The other advantage of these collection points is that members of the public can collect containers for their own benefit."
Ms Searle said container deposit schemes had proven popular and were well understood in the Tweed, with more than 14.5 million containers returned via the Return and Earn program in the first half of 2024, a saving of more than 871 tonnes from landfill, 85 million litres of water, 1,751 tonnes of CO2 and financial benefits returned to community members.
"Trials at other Australian councils have seen an increased rate of container recycling, diversion of waste from landfill, reduced bin contamination and community benefits through the Return and Earn program, and we anticipate similar outcomes here in the Tweed," she said.
Council will monitor the effectiveness of the trial and its impact on diverting waste from landfill and reducing contamination in public place bins over the next three months. Any further rollout of the scheme will be based on these outcomes.
This initiative is part of Tweed's Towards Zero Waste strategy, which aims to maximise the recovery of resources and ensure nothing is placed in landfill that doesn't need to be.
Find the nearest Return and Earn exchange point at returnandearn.org.au/map
Find out what can go in the Recycling bin tweed.nsw.gov.au/yellow-lid-bins
