Tuesday, 26 November 2024

Container deposit scheme

Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (19:03): (942) My adjournment this evening is to the Minister for Environment. The action I seek is for the minister to update Mordialloc residents on the benefits of the container deposit scheme in our patch. We passed the wonderful milestone of 1 billion containers returned as part of the CDS. There were knockers and blockers at the time who undermined this project and talked it down and belittled it, but Victorians got on board with recycling like we have never seen before. Before the container deposit scheme in Victoria was launched, drink containers were one of the most littered items in Victoria. Over the past 12 months alone a staggering one-third of containers have been saved from landfill and recycled through the scheme.

As a Frankston train line member of Parliament, nestled along Port Phillip Bay in one of the most beautiful areas in Victoria, I know the impacts of litter on our communities and our sea life. Our wonderful schools and communities have the I Sea, I Care Dolphin Research Institute engagement. We know with big rain and storm events or on days when tens of thousands flock to the eastern coastline of Port Phillip Bay we see significant amounts of traffic and litter through that area. Having the option of the container deposit scheme and having that investment going in, $100 million has been returned. Whether it is to charitable causes or back into the pockets of Victorians, it has been a great and important contribution. Just think of the possibilities of those options and what you can use this for.

There is the recycling element and there are the practical solutions that we see in our community. Just a little while ago the Mordialloc Freeway was completed. It was a fantastic project, known for its 60,000 vehicle movements diverting trucks and cars off local roads. One of the other little-known facts is the significant amount of plastic waste that was put into the noise walls that were developed – 75 ‍per cent recycled plastic, collected from households across the state. The recycled noise wall panels helped to divert more than 570 tonnes of plastic waste from landfill. So there are alternative uses across that circular economy and possibilities that exist in diverting that waste; that was one of the most extraordinary elements of that. The panels at the time were a mixture of recycled plastics, including milk bottles, juice bottles, shampoo bottles and soft plastics, and it collected the equivalent of 25,000 ‍Victorian homes’ plastic waste in one year.

This is the circular economy in action – container deposit schemes, infrastructure and road projects all coming together. It would not have been possible without the leadership of the Minister for Climate Action, then the Minister for Environment; the Minister for Health; Ingrid Stitt in the other place; and the current Minister for Environment, an absolutely wonderful champion of the environment and the container deposit scheme. I would be really thrilled with an update on how that has benefited the patch in the Mordialloc electorate.