Macarthur and South West Sydney have really taken to recycling since the “return and earn’’ system was launched just over two years ago.
In Camden alone residents have returned more than 50 million empty containers since the scheme began in 2018.
All up the more than three billion containers were returned across NSW.
The State Member for Camden, Peter Sidgreaves, says both the local and state effort was tremendous and deserved to be commended.
He praised locals for their strong commitment to reducing litter and contributing locally to the 3 billion containers.
“The growth of the scheme has been phenomenal and highlights a fundamental change in people’s thinking and behaviour around litter,” Mr Sidgreaves said.
“Return and earn has been very successful in Camden with more than 50.1 million containers returned helping to contribute to the three billion now collected.”
Mr Sidgreaves said summer is peak season for return and earners cashing in their containers and helping the environment and the recent holiday period was particularly impressive for returned containers.
“State wide between December 21 and January 13, there were 10 days with more than seven million drink containers returned a day, including four days with over eight million containers returned,” Mr Sidgreaves said.
“The scheme has highlighted so many positives across communities and every bottle returned is a win for the environment.”
Until 23 February, recyclers in NSW can donate to Bottles for the Bush, on all reverse vending machines with 10 cents from each container going towards helping farmers and rural families impacted by the drought and the recent bushfire devastation.
This option is part of a nationwide appeal that has raised more than $430,000 so far with more than $360,000 coming through NSW’s return and earn scheme.
Return and earn includes around 640 return points across NSW including reverse vending machines, staffed automated depots and over the counter sites. For more information about return and earn, visit www.returnandearn.org.au
