Townsville Greens The Greens Listen

Local Greens candidates have called on other candidates to state their position on container deposit legislation. A Newspoll survey commissioned by Clean Up Australia, showed that four out of five Australians believe a 10-cent refund for drink containers is a good idea. What seems to be lacking in Queensland is the political will to take on the big manufacturers who make greater profits from single use drink containers.

The Greens would introduce legislation based on the successful South Australian legislation which has been responsible for massive reductions in litter and increases in the reuse and recycling of glass, plastic and cans. Nationally, the recovery rate for non-refillable soft drink bottles is 36%, whether glass or plastic but South Australians recover 74% of plastic bottles and 85% of glass ones.

In a joint statement the Greens candidate for Mundingburra Jenny Brown said, “The Greens proposal would minimise waste and litter, as well as introduce profitable green businesses and create hundreds of green jobs.” Private companies would run the scheme in major cities and towns and councils would do the same in remote regions.

Ms Brown added, “The more items we can avoid sending to landfill the better off our community will be socially, financially, and environmentally.”

Better recycling makes good sense. Recycling PET bottles saves 84% of the energy it takes to make PET bottles from raw materials. Recycling one aluminium can saves enough energy to run your TV for 3 hours, while each cardboard milk carton can be recycled into 5 sheets of office paper.

Ms Brown, The said it was disappointing that, “Australia is one of the highest producers of waste per head of population in the world, ranking second, behind the USA, in terms of domestic waste generation.”

More information:

Jenny Brown, The Greens  0401553363