“The agreement of the State Environment Ministers to establish an inquiry into a National Container Deposit Scheme is a small step forward in demystifying the treasure trove of half-baked and unsubstantiated criticisms levelled at CDS,” said Upper House Greens MP Ian Cohen.
“Since the first National Packaging Covenant (NPC) in 1999, the packaging industry has diverted this country from achieving efficient and effective waste management systems. After 8 years of maintaining the status quo, it is obvious that the NPC is a reactionary, self-regulatory regime that simply does not have the capacity to implement proactive, intelligent and cost effective measures to reduce packaging waste,” said Mr Cohen.
In a Newspoll survey undertaken on behalf of the Boomerang Alliance in Western Australia last year, 94.48% of respondents support the introduction of a CDS and 89% of respondents said they would be willing to pay a 10c deposit on beverage containers .
“In the 11th hour as CDS gains significant public support and the NPC comes up for its mid-term review, the packaging regime in all its reactionary glory, is attempting to hatch new schemes to collect commercial and industrial office waste. These nominal schemes will not secure the 2010 target of 65% recycling.”
“The Covenant is lying on its deathbed and NPC participants are frantically attempting to revive the regime to fend off the drive towards a National CDS.”
“I am anticipating that the government inquiry will find that CDS is the most economically and environmentally responsible approach to managing container packaging in concurrence with the extensive Boomerang Alliance Reports.”
Greens MLC Ian Cohen introduced the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery (Container Recovery) Bill 2008 into Parliament last week which proposes to establish a NSW CDS if the NPC fails to achieve its targets.
Further Information: Ian Cohen: 0409 989 466 or Scott Hickie (02) 9230 2204
No comments:
Post a Comment