3 Things for Churches to Consider about the Containers for Change Scheme!

Exciting news came my way back in October last year (2018): Queensland was bringing back a beverage container refund scheme!  When I was a lad, way back when, you could take bottles back to your local corner shop and get a whole five cents each for them. Then you could go to the Ekka or a big sporting event, and literally climb into the rubbish bins with a big Glad bag to fill up with aluminium cans, making millions… or maybe a couple of dollars anyway. The message back then was pretty simple: if you could make the time and effort to go around and find bottles and cans to collect, you could make decent money out of the exercise, keep the environment free of rubbish, and good luck to you.

So now the hands on the clock have gone full circle and people like you and I have the opportunity to generate a small income stream from beverage containers in Queensland once again. But is it worth doing? What follows are my thoughts on what I have discovered so far.

1. Opportunities to make money are definitely there for those prepared to find them.

The rollout of the scheme starting on 1 November 2018 was quiet. Very quiet. I stumbled upon the scheme by chance, and still meet plenty of people today who have heard nothing about it. Apparently, the State Government wanted a quiet rollout so that people wouldn't start stockpiling containers and then bomb the return points in Week One... but that happened anyway.

“It’s only 10c a container,” you might say. Yes – but if ten million people each gave you 10c, what would you have? Another way of looking at it is to say: at the time of writing, more than 259 million containers have been returned in Queensland alone so someone is making money out of this scheme – would you and your church like to be one of them?

If so, there are a variety of ways to do it. The most obvious is to organise the members of your church or group to keep all the eligible containers they use at home and church, bring them to a central collection point at church regularly (say, once a month) and then take them to a deposit point to claim the full 10c per container.

Let's walk through how one church did it:

1. Parish council approved the initiative. The parish administrator contacted one of the big companies and ordered 100 sacks.

2. When they arrived, the sacks were handed out to members of the congregation at services, with instructions and encouragement to fill them and return them on a set date (a month away).

3. The collection date was advertised regularly in parish news.

4. On collection day, a parishioner with a ute pulled up, and the full sacks were all loaded on board. This allowed for some great photos (see below), which could be used in subsequent communications to encourage more collecting.

5. The bags were taken to a refund point belonging to the company owning the sacks. The sacks (50 with 25 containers in each) were processed and the money ($125) then deposited directly into the parish bank account. New sacks were provided to replace the used ones.

“Only $125?” Again – $125 times 12 equals $1500 per annum. Would your church like an extra $1500 this year? Also, higher amounts than this are certainly achievable.

2. Charities (including community groups and churches) are well placed to take advantage of the scheme.

Churches are usually registered charities, so your church can sign-up for a scheme account today.  Once you know your “Scheme ID number” (which will start with C100… ours here at SFC is C10084197), anyone can choose to donate to you via your Scheme ID number when they return their containers to a refund point – see below.

Your church could advertise itself as a “donation point” and you could encourage community members to donate their containers to your organisation. Remember that Donation Points can be physical, virtual or both:

·         Physical Donation Points – you and your community can donate eligible containers to your organisation by returning containers to your physical location. You will need somewhere to store them where they won’t pose a WH&S hazard of any kind, and ideally where they can’t be stolen.

·         Virtual Donation Points – any Queenslander can donate to your organisation from anywhere in the state. When you register as a Donation Point, you will get a scheme ID which people can provide at Container Refund Points to donate their containers to your organisation. People will be able to use the organisation’s scheme ID at any drop-off or depot in Queensland so their refund is electronically transferred to you.

Your church could partner or register with your local container refund point or collecting organisation (e.g. Envirobank, Return-it, MyTomra and others) to access container collection infrastructure (such as cages, bins or trailers) for your events or activities. The legislation states that operators who collect more than five million containers per year (in other words, ‘the big guys’) are required to make container collection infrastructure available free of charge for use by community organisations (like you). This means things like sacks, wheelie bins (I’ve seen blue and pink so far), and cages should be made available to you at no cost.

It is in the interest of the refunding organisations to establish a relationship with you, so that you choose to give them your containers. You will still get the full 10c per container but they will get a few cents per container by way of a handling fee. They make money through sheer volume of processed containers, so they’re hungry for them.

3. Can we set ourselves up so that we can still provide a community service to those who want to keep the 10c per container for themselves?

Yes. One option is to become a ‘Container Refund Point’ in your own right, but this is a very complicated process – you would essentially be setting up a business or social enterprise project which will take a lot of time, money and space. The actual number of CRPs is restricted and there is a lot of paperwork to do.

A better alternative if you are keen to secure as much income as possible is to work with particular companies (e.g. Return-It) and set up a scanning collection point on your property (see picture below for an example of what it looks like).

With this option, you will be given a scanner and wheelie bins. You will need to supply electricity and wi-fi internet for the scanner during the hours of operation, and perhaps replacement labels, and you would be wise to create a secure place for the setup (e.g. with security cameras or where a PA can monitor it.)

This might work like this:

1. Each morning, the Parish Admin opens up the office and wheels the scanner and wheelie bin outside the front door into a secure, dry place.

2. Local people arrive, with clear or white bags full of eligible containers. They type their own Scheme ID number and number of bags into the scanner, and it prints out a ‘QR code’ sticky label for each bag. They put the labels onto their bags, place them into the wheelie bin and walk away.

3. At regular intervals, perhaps once a week, the company will come and pick up the donated bags, crediting each local’s account with the 10c per container, and your church will get 1.5 cents per container for being the collection point or 2c per container if you take the bags to a Container Refund Point yourself (these numbers may vary between companies, so you should enquire widely).

Again, you will need to decide if it’s worth the hassle, but I must say I like the idea of providing a community service, of putting your church on the local map by bringing visitors to you, etc.

Summing up, this is still an evolving industry in Queensland. It is understood that the first twelve months will very likely uncover teething problems and adjustments, but the goal is to alter consumer behaviour so that cans and bottles are being recycled, not just dumped into the environment. I urge all churches to get involved at whatever level works for you, and see if you can generate an extra income stream as well as being of service to your local community.

For more information on the scheme, visit www.containersforchange.com.au.