Container Deposit Schemes: Will We Ever Get A Uniform System?

Container Deposit Schemes (CDS) now operate in every Australian State and Territory, but they do not form a single national scheme. Each jurisdiction sets its own requirements governing eligible containers, registration procedures and the administrative model, and recent CDS expansions in some jurisdictions have widened the differences between States and Territories. These differences raise practical questions for beverage suppliers, which we explore in this article.