Return and Earn: NSW recycling success story

Conceived as a litter reduction initiative, this unique container deposit scheme (CDS) has now collected more than 4.86 billion containers in just over two years.

Return and Earn has made NSW the market leader in CDS within Australia. The scheme redemption rate continues to rise year on year with the rolling 12-month average at 65 per cent. The most recent quarter, January to March 2020, had a redemption rate of 73 per cent.

Excitingly, this partnership of government and the beverage and recycling industries provides strong evidence that a true circular economy can become a reality in NSW. Return and Earn has fundamentally shifted people’s behaviour and thinking around litter and waste. For the first time, the NSW community is seeing litter as a valuable commodity for reusing and recycling, not as waste

Find out why and how Return and Earn has been a success in such a short period of time, read the report:

Return and Earn: NSW recycling success story