Care for the Environment Feedback

Hi Peter
Yes I agree 100%. Years ago when we were travelling on the west coast of Tassie, the main highway was covered from one end to the other with drink cans thrown from car windows. The other states in Australia complain about the can deposit, they are just wingers and do not know what they are missing. We have had it here in SA for a very long time and the proof is in the pudding, no large scale litter of cans and flavoured milk container. Why?? Because they are worth 10 cents each and many people make some very good extra money from collecting them, and in the process keeping our roadsides clean.

Cheers

Stephen

It is ironic to me regarding incentives and regulations about refuse across this country especially in various remote communities in areas valued so highly as the pinnicale of the tourist industry.
In remote communities where I have visited and lived there is little or no concern for the dumping of all types of rubbish (including the dumping of sump oil and old batteries at random and of course the thousands of strewn green cans and broken bottles)
I have also wittnessed how these same communities have regularly ignited their waste dump pits to create more space. The mixture of lethal gases and black plume that slowly rises into the atmosphere would be responded to very quickly by EPA authorities in urban areas.
It would be great if more could be done to encourage people to do be respectful to the environment out bush.

Thanks Reg

Back in the old days we picked up bottles and came away with lollies, pitty though lost many teeth. Few years ago picked up 120 thick stemmed beer bottles and used them for home brew.

I think that would depend on your interpretation of "significant".
Make it too dear, and little ferals will start breaking into houses to steal the bottles.
Maybe a deposit system should't stop with drink containers
How about a deposit on cigarette butts, or even better, and exchange system.
You want a packet of 20 ciggies, you need to exchange 20 old butts, then pay for the new ones.
At least a deposit would let kids raise a few bucks while cleaning up after the grubs who dispose of the butts illegally, and an exchange system may slow dow the morons who think thier arms are invisible when the cigarett is dropped out of the car window.

Hi there,

just a reply from the other end of the world (Dutch/German border). We traveled Australia pretty extensively and were shocked by the amount of rubbish. Did our share of cleaning up. Once in Grimwade WA (very quiet place) I collected 25! bag of cans and bottles just along the Bekin Road between the Grimwade-Kirup Road turn off and the 'settlement' (not even a mile and a half). Just put them five by five along the road, alerted CALM and gone they were. Did that more often when the load of rubbish was too big. Just alert the ranger or the council and tell them where it is. Make sure you make a good mud map ;-)
I think your problem is the refund. Here, where almost all beer is sold in bottles, we get 35 cents Australian for a 0.5 litre beer bottle or a Coke Pet bottle (1.0, 1.25 or 1.5 litre) at todays exchange rate. And a slab with 24 0.3/0.33l beer bottles is worth 5.50 Aud.
Many youth are not interested in 5 cents. But 35 is a different story.
But still on Rundle Mall in Adelaide scavengers collect big bags full of cans and bottles. It's the numbers that count.
Funny, when once driving to Morgan SA to tell the counclil where the four bags of bottles were we collected, we met this scavenger who was cleaning up rest areas. Man, was he glad when we told he where he could have his catch of the day, het sped away.
But all your efforts cant help the mongrels that dump cars everywhere, all over your country, even in National Parks. Another refund system? 50 dollars for a car wreck?
Just a last question. Could transport be an issue. I mean someone has to collect the empty cans and bottles for recycling and in rural areas that can be a lot of driving.
Cheers,
Willem