Bottle Deposits
New Zealanders use around 2 billion plastic and glass beverage containers each year. Unfortunately, the majority of these go to landfill, or become land or marine litter.
Our 2015 report, The InCENTive to Recycle, looked at the effectiveness of bringing back bottle refunds (cash for containers) to lift recycling rates in New Zealand.
An Auckland Council commissioned, independent cost benefit analysis of the Envision model released in December 2017 found:
83% of Kiwis support the establishment of a container deposit scheme
Nationally, local authorities could expect to save up to $20.9mil per annum on recycling collection costs
Over a 10yr period society would be better off by up to $645mil
Beverage container recycling rates could increase from their current 45% up to 82%
Click on the images below to download summary copies of the Auckland Council and InCENTive to Recycle reports and watch the short video below for a quick explanation of the model we proposed.
