More than 600 new jobs are expected to be created when Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme (CDS Vic) is rolled out across the state within weeks.
Environment Minister Ingrid Stitt last week visited TOMRA Cleanaway’s Clayton depot to see the 80 reverse vending machines that are already being installed ahead of the scheme’s 1 November 2023 start date.
CDS Vic is a new government initiative that will allow people to return their used drink cans, bottles and cartons for a 10-cent refund, with refund points planned across regional Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne.
VicReturn is the Scheme Co-ordinator, while zone operators TOMRA Cleanaway, Visy, and Return-It will establish and oversee the refund points and refunds to customers, as well as ensuring proper recycling of the containers.
The operators are each responsible for the collection point network in their allocated scheme zones: north, east and west.
There will be an estimated 200 new jobs across the west zone delivered by TOMRA Cleanaway alone – the roles created will include sales staff, technicians, collections drivers, refund point operator staff, and recycling sorting facility operators.
Reverse vending machines, depots, over-the-counter sites, and pop-up refund points will be the four ways people can return their eligible containers.
TOMRA Cleanaway’s ‘West Zone’ for CDS Vic builds on the community’s existing environmental commitments, said James Dorney, Chief Executive Officer of TOMRA Cleanaway.
“We have tasked ourselves with providing meaningful and skilled circular economy jobs across the ‘West Zone’ of CDS Vic that fulfil a diverse range of tasks and ultimately achieve positive social, environmental and economic benefits to all,” he said.
Within the first year of the scheme, the Zone Operators will be required to have a minimum of one collection point per 14,500 people in metropolitan areas, at least one per town of 750 people in regional areas, and at least one per town of 350 people in remote areas.
Stitt said the Container Deposit Scheme will put money in the pockets of Victorians, while also helping to clean up the state and deliver far-reaching environmental benefits. The scheme is expected to reduce litter in Victoria by half.
For more information, visit: www.premier.vic.gov.au
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