Energy Efficiency

It’s no small wonder that Queensland is being despoiled by immigrants from across our borders but while the Greens MLC – Colleen Hartland – has introduced a private member’s bill in Victorian Parliament for a 10c returnable deposit on drink bottles, cans and cartons, it won’t force them to take their litter with them up here.

Ms Colleen Hartland said that ‘a 10 cent deposit turns litterers into recyclers, it changes how they view the empty bottle in their hand; (sic) rather than throw it out the car window, knowing they paid 10 cents for it and it’s worth something, so it isn’t rubbish; this represents a radical change from how we view rubbish and recycling in Victoria; the Bill should stop the rubbish before it hits the ground’.

Colleen Hartland went on to say that ‘if this Bill is passed, we will increase drink container recycling from the current 49% to 83%, (sic) which will provide $15.2 million in annual savings to ratepayers and every single municipality in Victoria will benefit financially; we will divert over 128,000 tonnes of materials away from landfill by recycling them; we will decrease litter by 12-15% and also reduce Victoria’s Greenhouse Gas emissions, reduce water use and improve air quality and create hundreds of new jobs’.

‘It will create a $63.5 million fund that will meet all of the government’s costs in the scheme, with money left over to promote recycling; it will create new fundraising for community groups, sports groups and environment groups; if the government supports a sound financial and socially responsible way to increase recycling, they should vote for my Bill’, said Greens MLC Colleen Hartland.

When I was a kid and drinks were about 6 pence, looking for empty bottles was both a rewarding and useful in so much that these bottles found their way back to shops and were not left lying around.

Ms Hartland – IMO – left out that there will be many kids who will pump more money into the local shops as well as dentists from tooth decaying lollies and drinks bought with the spoils; its also a way of making manufacturers responsible for their goods, as the embodied energy in the packaging of a bottle, can or carton represents the majority of the cost of getting the fluid to the end user.