{"id":266500,"date":"2026-01-27T13:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T13:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/266500\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T13:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T13:02:14","slug":"wine-spirit-and-juice-bottles-to-be-added-to-canberras-container-deposit-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/266500\/","title":{"rendered":"Wine, spirit and juice bottles to be added to Canberra’s container deposit scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canberrans have been promised a more lucrative ‘return and earn’ scheme for their drink containers \u2014 but they could be waiting up to 18 months before they’re able to cash in on their wine and spirit bottles.<\/p>\n

The ACT’s container deposit scheme (CDS) currently accepts most aluminium cans, some glass and plastic bottles, and cartons including small juice boxes and flavoured milk, for a 10-cent refund.<\/p>\n

The government today announced an expansion to the scheme, with the addition of wine and spirit glass bottles, cordial containers, and larger beverage containers already in the scheme, such as flavoured milk and fruit juice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plain milk containers are not included in the expansion, which will commence no earlier than mid-2027.<\/p>\n

\"Minister<\/p>\n

Suzanne Orr says producers new to the system need time to meet new labelling, reporting and administrative requirements. (ABC News: Emmy Groves)<\/p>\n

ACT Environment Minister Suzanne Orr said the changes were the next step in developing the territory’s circular economy.<\/p>\n

“What we expect to see is less containers going into landfill and also less litter around our public spaces,” she said.<\/p>\n

ACT scheme coordinator, Exchange for Change CEO Danielle Smalley, said more than 440 million containers have been recycled since the scheme started in 2018 \u2014 which is more than two out of every three drink containers sold in the ACT.<\/p>\n

“We think the expansion will encourage more people to return their containers,” Ms Smalley said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Danielle Smalley said the system had social, economic and environmental benefits, with almost $300,000 being donated to social groups and charities through the scheme.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 (ABC News: Emmy Groves)<\/p>\n

The ACT government estimates the expansion will result in an additional 8 million containers being recycled in the first year, rising to 13 million in subsequent years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is expected to divert around 400 tonnes of recyclable material from landfill.<\/p>\n

Rollout ‘gives people a chance to adjust’<\/p>\n

A 2025 federal government inquiry into food and beverage manufacturing in Australia recommended “that the Australian government work with state\/territory and local governments and industry to harmonise Australia’s container deposit schemes”.<\/p>\n

Ms Orr said the 18-month wait for the scheme to begin was necessary to make sure all systems were prepared for the rollout of the expansion.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Wine bottles will be eligible for a refund under the expanded container deposit scheme.\u00a0 (ABC News: Che Chorley)<\/p>\n

She said that producers would have to meet new labelling, reporting and administrative requirements, and consumers would need time to be educated about the changes.<\/p>\n

“It’s not really a hold up, it’s more just working through how we continue to expand this and working with industry and those new sectors coming into the scheme so they also have time to adjust,” Ms Orr said.<\/p>\n

“It’s giving people a chance to adjust \u2014 it might be changing labelling over.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s making sure there is a long enough lead time that industry can work through all of that in a comfortable time frame.”\"Various<\/p>\n

Most cans, glass and plastic bottles are currently eligible for a 10-cent refund.\u00a0 (ABC News: Che Chorley\u00a0)<\/p>\n

A parliamentary probe last year into Queensland’s container recycling scheme<\/a>, which added wine and spirit bottles in 2023, revealed governance issues and concerns about an adverse impact on small producers.<\/p>\n

“The reason we are going for mid-2027 at the earliest is so we can give everyone time to prepare \u2014 make sure all the facilities are there, and align with the NSW changes as well,” Ms Orr said.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the New South Wales government \u2014 along with the South Australian government \u2014 announced in September last year that a similar expansion of their schemes to include wine and spirit bottles would begin by mid to late 2027<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Northern Territory government plans to make changes to their scheme by August 2027 with a two-year transition period, and Western Australia will expand its scheme in July 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canberrans have been promised a more lucrative ‘return and earn’ scheme for their drink containers \u2014 but they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[13976,131099,29098,131106,131098,246,131100,61,60,131103,3751,131104,82,131107,23560,131102,17328,131105,131101],"class_list":{"0":"post-266500","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-act","9":"tag-act-government","10":"tag-canberra","11":"tag-cans","12":"tag-container-deposit-scheme","13":"tag-environment","14":"tag-expanded","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-juice-bottles","18":"tag-recycling","19":"tag-refund","20":"tag-science","21":"tag-small-scale-producers","22":"tag-spirit","23":"tag-spirit-bottles","24":"tag-wine","25":"tag-wine-and-spirit","26":"tag-wine-bottles"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}