Clean Up Australia Day last Sunday was the opportunity for the state government to speed up implementation of a container deposit scheme.
On Sunday, thousands of volunteers spent the day picking up rubbish from sites across Australia. Much of this was beverage containers that have been needlessly thrown into our precious environment.
While I welcome news that the coalition government will introduce a container deposit scheme, it is disappointing that we will have to wait another two years before it begins.
That means unfortunately we will be spending Clean Up Australia Day 2016 still pulling cans and bottles out of the environment.
Plastics are already choking our oceans and our marine life. We know that a Container Deposit Scheme can stop plastic drink containers ending up in our oceans, so why are we waiting till 2017 to take action?
A Container Deposit Scheme has been in place in South Australia since 1977 and is being implemented in over 40 jurisdictions over the world.
The model is already there, and it should be rolled out immediately.
Congratulations to the thousands of volunteers who worked for a cleaner and healthier environment on the 25th Clean Up Australia day.
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