Getting treasure for trash seems like a no brainer, but response to the government’s Return and Earn initiative has been met with mixed reactions from Orange users.
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Robert Walker and his wife were at the North Orange deposit site on Friday.
“We’re from Spring Hill but since we were coming into town anyway we brought in our cans,” Mr Walker said.
“It saves putting them in the bin and it’s also a bit of extra money in the pocket.”
More than 235,344 containers have gone through the Orange depot machines since it opened on 15 January, which translates to Orange inhabitants depositing about 18,000 containers every day.
According to NSW’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), recycling responsible residents have ensured that the North Orange Shopping Centre’s depot is one of the most regularly visited in the region.
“There has been widespread community support for Return and Earn,” a representative from NSW EPA said.
In response to criticism that wine, spirits, cordial and plain milk containers are generally not eligible, the NSW EPA said that containers were selected based on those most commonly found in the NSW litter stream. The EPA advised that the eligible containers were accepted to align with existing container deposit schemes in SA and the NT.
Mr Walker said the process was a little slow but he was happy with which containers the government had selected to receive reimbursement.
“It feels like it’s taken hours but it’s probably only been fifteen minutes,” said Mr Walker.
“We brought in two full bags and a potato sack of cans and got about $50 back.”
There are currently 365 collection points across NSW, with plans for new sites to be rolled out statewide.
The NSW EPA said teams are deployed daily to scout out potential future Return and Earn sites. Information on whether Orange was in line for a second site was unavailable.
The machines provide refunds via vouchers redeemed at participating retailers, through PayPal, or donations to participating charities.
“We’ll probably go to the shops and spend it now,” said Mr Walker. “Probably on another carton of beer.”