Recyling News
In our previous News we reported that the proposed amendments had been released for public consultation. This long process has now been finalised and the amendments to the South Australia’s container deposit scheme (CDL) came into effect on 1 September 2008. The legislative amendments increased the refund level from 5c to 10 cents and also introduced new requirements associated with seeking refunds for containers not purchased in South Australia. The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) wrote to depots advising them of their responsibility in accordance with these new provisions.
In addition to the increase refund amount to 10 cents, some key recent amendments include the following:
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It is an offence for any person to present to a collection depot, for the purpose of claiming refund amounts, containers that the person knows or has reason to believe were not purchased in South Australia
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A collection depot may request any person presenting containers for the purpose of claiming refund amounts to complete a declaration form stating that the person has no reason to believe that the containers were not purchased in this State (note - this could be for any number of containers)
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A collection depot must request a declaration from a person presenting 3000 or more containers within a 48 hour period for the purpose of claiming a refund
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A collection depot may refuse to accept delivery of a container where they reasonably believe the container was not purchased in this State
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A collection depot may refuse to accept delivery of a container where the person delivering the container refuses to complete a declaration.
Other minor amendments to definitions were made at the same time and if you wish to view these changes, a copy of the Environment Protection Act 1993 can be obtained from www.legislation.sa.gov.au
The penalty for persons presenting
containers not purchased in South Australia to a collection depot, retailer
or super collector for the purpose of claiming refund amounts is a maximum
fine of $30,000. If a collection depot operator reasonably believes containers
have originated from interstate, they can refuse to accept those containers
regardless of whether the person has completed a declaration.
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