Bottle idea a winner

Palmerston North’s call for a deposit and refund scheme to encourage recycling of drink bottles and cans has won 90 per cent support from the Local Government New Zealand conference in Dunedin.

Mayor Grant Smith said the scheme could save ratepayers between $26m and $40m a year by diverting containers from landfills to collection centres. An estimated 60 per cent of the 2 billion cans and bottles bought each year were wasted.

‘‘Many people will fondly remember the days of bottle drives, and it’s time they made a comeback,’’ he said.

There would be a 10c refund for returned cans and bottles.

The conference endorsed the concept and of a national beverage container deposit system and asked the Government to make industry develop and implement it within two years.