Western Australia’s container deposit scheme is making its way to mine sites across the state, showcasing the big impacts of small containers.
Although placing a recyclable container in a bin right after you have finished drinking from it seems like a small action, Western Australia’s container deposit scheme is demonstrating the significant impact this can have in reducing the estimated 50 million ten-cent containers lost to landfill on mine sites annually.
When the Western Australian Government set out to establish a container deposit scheme, a critical first step was creating a new statutory office to be the scheme coordinator.
Interested parties were given the opportunity to bid for the position, with WA Return Recycle Renew (WARRRL) officially named the scheme coordinator in 2019.
WARRRL is committed to collecting and recycling the ten-cent drink containers that would otherwise be lost to landfill across the state.
Upon appointment, WARRRL began working with industry partners to build a team and create a network of refund points in time for the then scheduled launch date in June 2020. By March 2020, the WARRRL team had significantly progressed plans to deliver a strong network of refund point operators, supported by logistics and processing providers. Although COVID-19 resulted in the delay of the scheme’s initial launch, Containers for Change was launched in October 2020.
WARRRL Chief Executive Officer, Tim Cusack, said, “We were responsible for ensuring the delivery of all infrastructure to run the scheme, and the process beginning in 2019 included us appointing about 75 refund point operators. Now, we have those operators running more than 270 refund points across the state, including areas that have high levels of mining concentration.”
Mr Cusack said it was natural for the operators in these areas to seek to engage with the sector because of the sheer volume of ten-cent containers being consumed on those sites.
“A number of our operators have established those initial relationships and have begun the process of recovering, whether it’s the Goldfields, the Pilbara or places even closer to Perth in the southwest.”
Rolling out to mine sites
The scheme has spread organically across the state in the four years since its inception, with approximately two-thirds of ten-cent containers being returned, including as much as 80 per cent of ten-cent glass containers.
To further escalate the adoption of the scheme, Mr Cusack and the WARRRL team started investigating areas where container collection was underrepresented. This search yielded two locations: mine sites and fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) camps.
“In these situations, you have a campsite 100km from Karratha, in a remote location in the Pilbara, but there are 3,000 people there every week,” Mr Cusack said.
The remote location of these sites usually means there is no potable water and that all water needs to be trucked in. On top of drinking water usage, these sites also involve the consumption of recreational beverages outside of work hours.
Mr Cusack said this unlocked a high volume of ten-cent containers all concentrated in one place.
“We thought that we really should be doing a better job of trying to capture those containers, because they’re in a specific, quarantined location,” he said. “If you can inspire the camp management, the facilities provider and the people on the sites to keep the containers separate, then you are going to recover them.”
Container collection in practice
In August 2024, WARRRL partnered with CITIC Pacific Mining and its food and facilities provider Sodexo Australia to bring Containers for Change to CITIC’s Eramurra village and mine site near Karratha.
The partnership involved WARRRL providing 360 Containers for Change collection points throughout Eramurra’s recreational areas, car parks, administration and the site’s wet mess. For every general waste bin on site, there is now a Containers for Change recycling bin placed alongside.
This partnership is expected to collect 2.7 million containers annually, diverting more than five per cent of unrecycled containers from landfill.
Mr Cusack said the results coming from this partnership are encouraging in the scheme’s mission to recover 85 per cent of containers state-wide.
“We’re hopeful this fantastic partnership we have with CITIC and Sodexo will provide this lens of what’s possible when parties get together, and we can then connect all the supply chain dots to make it happen.
“All of a sudden we’re getting containers back from where we never had them before.”
What’s in it for miners?
Examples like the CITIC Pacific Mining partnership can go a long way in showcasing not only the implementation of the scheme, but also the benefits mining organisations can expect to receive.
More than just the feeling of doing good for the environment, adopters of Containers for Change can realise other benefits of the scheme.
The most direct benefit is the ten-cent refund per container. On a grand scale, like at Eramurra, for example, Mr Cusack said that refund could reach as much as $270,000, if the anticipated 2.7 million containers are recovered.
“There’s an opportunity for this funding stream to be applied to causes the companies are dedicated to.”
An example of this is Mineral Resources, with regular donations from the Containers for Change collections installed at its drill operations being given to Mingenew Primary School’s P&C Association. This funding is being used, among other things, to support a Year 6 school camp.
The funds collected at Eramurra village will go towards CITIC Pacific Mining’s Community Support Fund and will support community initiatives in Karratha and the wider Pilbara region.
“We appeal to the sector on the basis that this program is a relatively straightforward way to generate an income stream for them to support causes,” Mr Cusack said.
With the industry’s increased demands for mining organisations to make significant ESG commitments, Mr Cusack said that collecting ten-cent containers on site for recycling is an easy way to work towards ESG goals without impacting workers’ day-to-day activities.
“The actions are at the micro level but can have quite a significant impact in terms of driving outcomes that are important, both financially and environmentally, to the sector.”
Although the remoteness of many of Australia’s mine sites adds some additional challenges to container collection and recycling, Containers for Change takes the headache out of getting the ten-cent containers off site to the location where they can be recycled.
WARRRL’s refund point network and logistics providers collects the materials, transporting them to a processing facility where they can be prepared for recycling.
“Of course, there are those natural barriers to participation,” Mr Cusack said. “But over time, the sector is becoming aware that it’s not as hard as they think to participate if you set up properly in the first place.
“We’re showing the sector how it can be done, and by doing so, hoping to remove that barrier and inspire others to get involved.”
From idea to implementation
When exploring the feasibility of implementing the scheme at certain sites, Mr Cusack said it is never a one-size-fits-all scenario, especially in the mining industry where the container collection receptacles are often subjected to harsh conditions.
“We realise that, depending on the setting, the solution we offer needs to be tailored for the individual circumstance.”
Understanding the unique requirements of the challenging conditions on remote sites, WARRRL uses recycling bin infrastructure it thinks can withstand the elements. On top of this, the Containers for Change bins have been configured in a particular way to ensure the delivery of the scheme’s goal: capturing the ten-cent containers without contamination.
“We haven’t just gone with one bin type – we’ve used multiple bin types depending on the setting,” Mr Cusack said.
To achieve efficient and effective collection across different areas of a mine site and camp, WARRRL provides various receptacles; from 10L bins that can be placed in dongas or personal quarters, to 240L bins that can be placed around the site.
“As long as it’s robust, fit for purpose and can stand the test of the climatic conditions, then we can capture those containers and get them back for recycling,” Mr Cusack said.
Peace of mind
In striving to meet ESG requirements and decrease the footprint of operations, mining organisations are making big changes to the way they run sites. Thinking on such a large scale might lead to smaller, everyday actions – like recycling ten-cent containers on site – being overlooked.
“In a world where we’re starting to think about sustainability a lot more, where we’re trying to get to net zero as quickly as we can, the more we can displace inefficient consumption of raw material and replace that with recyclable material, then that’s going to support net zero.”
Mr Cusack said that the materials that the containers are made from – glass, plastic and liquid paperboard – are all recyclable, and therefore should not end up in landfill.
“The idea of just simply burying in landfill when there’s a very accessible alternative is just wrong,” he said.
“We shouldn’t be burying recoverable resources anywhere and this is a very clear and present opportunity to stop that behaviour and support something that’s a much better outcome.”
Wider impacts
For those on site, the impact of Containers for Change can be seen through community donations and the bright green bins filled with ten-cent containers for recycling, but the effects of the scheme extend off site.
Mr Cusack said the scheme has a range of refund point operators, half of which are not for-profits, including social enterprises and Aboriginal Corporations.
“With every container return comes a handling fee that we pay the operator to handle the container, to recover it, to separate it and get it ready for processing.
“A lot of these organisations are providing employment outcomes for marginalised people who are otherwise going to struggle to get full time work, people who live with disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, long term unemployed people.
“All of a sudden there’s a lot of operators who are providing employment pathways for people. There’s a very tangible benefit in terms of cascading impacts within the organisations who receive the material on the way to getting it to us,” Mr Cusack said.
Shifting mindsets
According to Mr Cusack, one of the biggest hurdles is not setting up Containers for Change at participating sites; rather, the biggest challenge comes with changing people’s mindsets and ultimately, their behaviour.
Mr Cusack said a key process for doing this is simply giving people the opportunity to place their ten-cent containers separately from landfill once they have consumed the contents.
“The main enabler across the management of waste generally, is to create the ability to separate, to keep the containers separate once the contents have been consumed,” Mr Cusack said. “Unless people have got that ability there and then, then it’s going to go to general waste and then to landfill.”
Mr Cusack said ensuring the separation opportunity is present in as many locations as possible is a key priority for Containers for Change.
“If you can keep it separate in that way, then the rest of it’s really like a supply chain challenge to consolidate it and get it back.”
This challenge of keeping ten-cent containers separate is not unique to mine sites.
“It’s a challenge on a mine site; it’s a challenge on the local street corner in Perth. It’s the same challenge.
“One of the things WARRRL is trying to achieve is behaviour change; whether it’s a work setting, a recreational setting, living my life, whatever I’m doing, I’ve got a water bottle or an energy drink in my hand, when I finish drinking the contents, what am I going to do with that container?”
Mr Cusack said that in encouraging the behaviour on site through Containers for Change, WARRRL hopes the behaviour will be echoed in workers’ home life as well.
“What we feel very strongly is that this behaviour is required in every setting,” he said. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re at work in the Pilbara in a remote location or whether you’re walking down St George’s Terrace, it doesn’t matter; it’s the same behaviour we’re looking for, which is keeping that ten-cent container separate.”
Change at every level
The launch of Containers for Change at Eramurra garnered a strong response from the industry, and through the partnership, WARRRL has become an associate member of the Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA.
Mr Cusack said the exposure is giving the team a lot of opportunities to educate the sector on how easy it can be to get involved.
“We now have a page dedicated to mining on our website. If there’s a sustainability leader sitting with that responsibility within a mining company and they want to know how to get involved, they just jump onto that page and everything they need is there.”
Mr Cusack said he is excited about the industry interest Containers for Change is receiving, giving Western Australia a boost towards its recycling goal.
“We want to be the first modern container deposit scheme in Australia to get to 85 per cent container recovery and we can definitely get there. But it requires all sectors of the community to be involved to get to 85; you’ve got to be everywhere, doing the right thing everywhere, irrespective of the location.
“Where people are concentrated and there’s ten-cent containers present, we want to be able to capture those containers and get them back,” Mr Cusack said.
“Whether you’re at one end of the state or the other, we’ve got a fantastic array of partners and resources, and it just requires connecting the right people at the right time, and we can make it happen.”
