ORANGE residents have deposited less than half the number of bottles and cans as their Dubbo counterparts since the start of the controversial Return and Earn initiative, which a councillor has blamed on only having one reverse vending machine.
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The NSW Government Container Deposit Scheme was launched late last year, offering people the chance to receive a 10 cent refund for a range of acceptable glass, aluminum and plastic bottles.
Since then, a whopping 30,964,848 items have been returned in the Central West.
In that time, Orange’s single collection point – located in the car park of the north Orange shopping centre – has had 3,962,143 individual items fed into it.
Dubbo, which boasts two drop-off points, has had 8,068,197 items returned.
Councillor Jason Hamling previously asked Orange City Council to send a letter to Premier Gladys Berejiklian asking for a second RVM.
With access to North Orange an issue for some residents, he believed a machine in another location would boost returns.
“If Dubbo’s got two collection points and they’ve got eight million, if we had two, we would probably have the same number,” he said.
Bathurst has seen 5,712,647 items funneled into the city’s three reverse vending machines and one automated bulk collection point.
Meanwhile the three collection points at Young accepted 3,660,305 items, followed by Cowra (2,994,287), Parkes (2,279,734), Lithgow (2,201,648) and Wellington (2,085,887).
Charities and groups are able to associate themselves with the scheme so that people can choose to donate their refund rather than claim it for themselves.
A NSW Environment Protection Authority spokeswoman said donation partnerships were available for three-month periods.
“Return and Earn provides a unique opportunity for local groups to fundraise through a reverse vending machine,” she said.
To find out more about donation partnerships visit www.returnandearn.org.au.
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