INTRODUCTION

LET'S MAKE EVERY DAY CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA DAY

Over the last 12 months we carried out 121 roadside litter surveys in Victoria and South Australia. We wanted to find out how many drink containers litter Victoria’s roadsides and whether there are as many along South Australia’s roadsides.

In Victoria we counted 12,172 drink containers (not including flavoured milk cartons, tetra packs and all kinds of cups). There were 5,283 cans, 5,118 plastic bottles and 1,771 glass bottles. In South Australia they would be worth $608.60 to individuals, charities or community groups.

In Victoria only the cans are worth money. At ninety cents a kilo (about one cent each) they would only be worth $52.83, through the ‘Cash a Can’ system. It is little wonder that no one bothered to pick up those cans and bottles, or any of the hundreds of thousands of other drink containers that we saw littering our roadsides.

If Victoria brings in Container Deposit Legislation, the refund will need to be ten cents. Five cents does not hold the same value as it did when refunds began in South Australia, over 20 years ago. With a ten cent refund, those same drink containers mentioned above, would be worth $1,217.20.

With that level of incentive, any cans and bottles would not stay on the ground for long. All sorts of people would pick them up, regardless of whether they are collecting them for themselves, for their family, a local community group or their favourite charity. Also, they would be doing their state, their country and our environment a good deed. Most importantly, a can and bottle refund system would make every day in Victoria, Clean Up Australia Day.

P & M Cook

July 2006

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