Kiernan urges recyclables deposit scheme

Plastic rubbish, particularly recyclable drink and food containers, continues to
dominate refuse collected during Clean Up Australia Day, event chairman Ian Kiernan
says.
The founder of the event, now in its 20th year, wants a nationwide container deposit
scheme to deal with the problem, similar to South Australia's 10 cent refund on
drink bottles.
More than 630,000 volunteers collected about 8,300 tonnes of rubbish across
Australia on Sunday, with Mr Kiernan estimating 40 per cent of that would be
recycled.
"Eighty-eight per cent of the community in Australia want deposit legislation on
food and beverage containers, and we know that the recovery rates in South Australia
are in excess of 85 per cent, other states 35 per cent," he told reporters in
Sydney's Botanic Gardens.
"Instead of seeing a bit of rubbish there, you see a bit of money and it disappears
like that."
Mr Kiernan said Clean Up Australia Day 2009 was a "huge success", with the number of
volunteers rising by 15 per cent.
They were scattered across 6,910 registered sites, located at beaches, waterways,
bushland and local sites like parks and schools.
"That's more sites than there are postcodes," Mr Kiernan said.
But plastic continued to be a problem, with an increased amount collected since last
year.
"We know it is a very convenient material, but we also know that it is incredibly
durable and accumulates and is finding its way often into the oceans," Mr Kiernan
said.
Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett, who helped clean up Sydney's Maroubra
Beach, said he was open to a national container deposit scheme.
The proposal would be discussed at an environment ministers' meeting scheduled for
later in the month, he said.
"I'd like to see much less litter in our waterways, in our streets, in our bush," Mr
Garrett said.
"We've had a working group looking closely at container deposit legislation. They
will bring a report through to environment ministers from the states, when we meet
... in March this year."
NSW Premier Nathan Rees said he had collected a couple of bags of rubbish while
working on a clean up in Winston Hills, near Parramatta.
"Each year you are staggered by the sorts of things you pick up," he said.
"Bits of sheet metal this morning, a couple of old boots, prescription pills, and
the ubiquitous plastic bottles."