Kaitaia's new recycle scheme a bottler idea

Discarded bottles need not be a major environmental problem according to deposit campaigners.

Kiwi Bottle Drive campaign national co-ordinator Rowan Brooks has thanked Kaitaia for supporting the national launch by recycling more than 20,000 bottles and cans in less than four hours (An idea whose time has come, May 25).

He also thanked the more than 200 people from the Kaitaia area who had signed the petition (which is at www.kiwibottledrive.nz).

According to Kaitaia man Warren Snow, who helped set up the Kiwi Bottle Drive campaign, industry lobbyists were constantly working away in Wellington to block the reintroduction of bottle deposits.

"But we think we can get them introduced again through people power. That's why communities all over New Zealand are running bottle drives like the one in Kaitaia," he said.

"The Kaitaia event was a one-off, but imagine if every day, every bottle and can was worth 10 or even 20 cents. We would clean up our streets and waterways, create more than 2000 jobs throughout the country, and stop more than 800,000 cubic metres of beverage containers going to landfill, into streets, streams and our oceans, every year.

"It would also give families and community groups huge fundraising opportunities."

So if it was such a great idea, why hadn't the Government implemented a deposit system?
"Packaging and beverage industry lobbyists are constantly telling the government it won't work, and get lots of government money to set up programmes that look good but only recycle token quantities," Mr Snow said.

"The cost of a bottle deposit scheme to the beverage industry would be less than one cent per container, but they don't even want to contribute that much to clean up their mess.

They would rather local communities pay the costs of cleaning up their litter.

"But councils are sick and tired of cleaning up after huge corporations like Coca-Cola, Lion Nathan and others. That's why 90 per cent of councils voted at their last conference to support the Government bringing back bottle deposits."

Mayor John Carter and the Far North District Council supported a deposit, as did the 60 members of the Community Recycling Network and more than 90 per cent of New Zealanders.

"You won't see bottles and cans on beaches and in the streets once they are worth 10 cents or even 20 cents," Mr Brooks said.

"The financial incentive worked in the past, and will work in the future.

"It's time for real producer responsibility, not just with bottles and cans, but with tyres, e-waste, packaging and many other problem products that end up in landfill, at huge cost to communities and the environment.

"We all saw how bottle deposits work and how the locals got in behind the Kaitaia bottle drive. If you want the government to bring back bottle deposits, go to www.kiwibottledrive.nz and sign the petition."