Are refillable beer bottles again possible in Australia?

As in other countries, when single-use drink containers such as aluminum cans and plastic bottles became common in Australia in the 1970s, refillable containers and the systems developed to recover and refill them went by the wayside. The environment bore the brunt of this change, with beverage container litter in states, aside from South Australia, generally considered to make up ~40% of the litter stream (by volume).

In this article, Robert Kelman (Director of Reloop Pacific) discusses the history of drink container deposit schemes across Australia and other countries, and examines the many benefits they generate in terms of energy and material savings. He also examines how such systems could be used to develop a refillable container supply-chain in Australia.

Click here to read the article.