Logic missing with bottle deposits

January 8 2009, 3:05pm

There are sentimental arguments to support South Australia's beverage container refund scheme, but they don't really stand up to logical examination or economic scrutiny.Since the refund scheme was introduced there has been much greater awareness of recycling and most households do the right thing, at least when it comes to putting bottles and cans in the blue bins.The cans and bottles dumped in public places would probably be collected by recyclers regardless of the deposit scheme, which has certainly been the experience in other states.That probably explains why the other states have not followed South Australia's lead and introduced their own refunds.Commonsense, market forces and actual environmental impact all suggest a deposit scheme is not really necessary.It was revealed earlier this month that South Australian drinkers are paying up to $4 extra for twin beer carton specials at national liquor chains.Supermarkets have cashed in on the refund hike to increase container prices by 20 cents a unit.And now it's been revealed that opportunist Victorians are also cashing in on South Australian refunds.The Environment Protection Authority admits it is virtually powerless to prevent this happening.It doesn't take a genius to figure that bottle mules are probably ferrying containers across the border and collecting five cents from a local middle man who then legally collects 10 cents from a registered depot.Even if an interstate smuggler did take the punt and risk a $30,000 fine it would be interesting to hear the High Court's view on a free trade argument.