Containers for Change is celebrating a record 350 container refund points now open across Queensland, making it easier than ever for people to recycle their containers.
The refund points, including bag drops, reverse vending machines, depots and Container Collect, offer Queenslanders greater access to the scheme, which provides 10 cent refunds for eligible drink containers.
One of the areas of growth has been at the Gold Coast, one of Australia’s fastest growing cities, which has been a key focus of the Reverse Vending Machine kiosk roll out, with seven installed in major Gold Coast shopping centre carparks in the first three months of 2022 alone.
The Reverse Vending Machine kiosks are ideal for small returns during shopping trips, with sites also open at Westfield Chermside and Westfield Garden City, with dozens more set to be operational across South East Queensland in the coming months.
Each Reverse Vending kiosk offers recyclers four fully automated high-speed reverse vending machines that are open up to 14 hours a day, seven days a week and can accept up to 100 eligible containers per minute.
Currently 98 per cent of Queensland electorates have a local container refund point, with Containers for Change celebrating the recent opening of its most remote refund point in the historic town of Birdsville in April.
The Birdsville depot stands as an example of the scheme’s dedication to servicing regional Queensland, serving a town with a population of 101 whose closest refund point was previously located in Quilpie, over 625km away.
Depots like the one in Birdsville are designed to be hubs for recycling, allowing customers to drop off large quantities of contaners or process their containers themselves.
The Containers for Change scheme also offers on-the-go options, including bag drops where labelled bags are picked up by operators and refunds paid to customers bank or PayPal accounts.
The Container Collect program has also made returning containers more convenient. 98 per cent of South East Queensland is now able to take advantage of the free home collection service, with refunds going straight into their bank accounts.
Since its introduction last year, the service has been a roaring success, with 2.2 million containers already collected through the contact-free at home service, including a record 217,059 in March this year.
Ken Noye, CEO of COEX – the not-for-profit that runs Containers for Change – says Queenslanders have been recycling in record numbers despite challenges such as the floods and COVID-19.
“We are continuing to expand with more refund points across Queensland, ensuring as many communities as possible enjoy both the environmental and economic benefits of the Containers for Change scheme,” he said.
“More containers can be refunded than ever before, with over 3,500 container types being added to the scheme this year. That means a total of more than 25,000 different beverage containers are now recyclable through the scheme.
“We’re also introduced longer trading hours across many of our facilities, and opened over 12 new sites in the first three months of 2022.”
For more information on containers eligible for refunds and refund point locations visit the Containers for Change website.
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e: media@containerexchange.com.au
