A scheme that incentivises people to return their empty drink containers for recycling has been hailed as “great news” by local zero waste hub Wastebusters.

Under the proposed container return scheme (CRS), a 20 cent refundable deposit would incentivise recycling of beverage containers, which currently lags in New Zealand at around 50 percent.

“Wastebusters is thrilled to finally have a government proposal for a beverage container return scheme (CRS) on the table,” Wastebusters general manager Tony Pfeiffer said.

“It’s quite shocking that as a nation we buy over two billion drinks a year, but only one billion containers are recycled, meaning that the other billion containers are landfilled, stockpiled or become litter.”

Tony said Wastebusters was keen and ready to go as a CRS depot.

“That puts us in a great place to help our communities to get maximum benefit from the proposed CRS recycling scheme,” he said.

Environment minister David Parker announced the scheme on March 13, saying overseas evidence suggests a container return scheme would boost the recycling rate for beverage containers to 85-90 percent.

The package of proposals to transform recycling released by the minister also included: Accepting the same materials for kerbside recycling all around the country; adding food scrap bins to kerbside collections; and mandatory separation of food scraps from rubbish for businesses.

Tony said Wastebusters supports the moves to get food scraps out of landfill, where they contribute to climate change through release of methane.

“It’s essential that the separation and collection of food scraps are combined with local-scale, community-led composting solutions to regenerate soils and increase food security,” he said.

The proposals are open for public submission until May 8 and can be made here.

Wastebusters will be working with the Zero Waste Network to encourage the community to participate in the submission process.

PHOTO: Supplied