Senator Scott Ludlam has introduced a plan to create 2,600 new green jobs, while boosting Government funds by up to $90 million through recycling 740,000 tonnes of waste.

The Greens' Environmental Protection (Beverage Container Deposit and Recovery Scheme) Bill will create a national scheme for recycling the 10 billion drinks containers Australians throw away each year through a 10c returnable deposit on all drink bottles, cans and cartons.

Some of the key benefits of the scheme include:
- Savings to rate payers of over $59.8 million a year
- Raising up to $90 million in government revenue
- Creating hundreds of green jobs
- Decreasing litter by 12-15%
- Increasing recycling of drink containers from 50% to 80%
- Diverting more than 740,000 tonnes from landfill
- Reducing national greenhouse gas emissions by more than 1.3 million 
tonnes of CO2 each year - the equivalent of switching 197,000 homes to
renewable energy
- Improving air quality to the equivalent of taking 140,000 cars off the roads

Read Scott's speech on the Bill here.

See the Media Release here.

This is a fully costed plan to save taxpayer money, create new jobs and save the environment.

Victorian Green MLC Colleen Hartland has also introduced a Private Members Bill to implement such a scheme at a state level and South Australia has had a similar scheme in place for some time.

Attachment	Date	Size
Environmental Protection (Beverage Container Deposit and Recovery Scheme) Bill.pdf	14/05/09 11:55 am	195.43 KB
Beverage Container Deposit and Recovery Scheme Bill - Explanatory Memorandum.pdf	14/05/09 11:56 am	79.58 KB