Since launching on 30 June 2018, the ACT community has recycled almost 480 million eligible drink containers through local return points. 

That means nearly $48 million in container refunds back into people’s pockets. 

The scheme’s 8^th birthday coincides with the roll out of new AI-based technology at all depots, to make container counting even faster. 

“We’re very proud of the technology upgrades we’ve rolled out at all our cash-back depots, with the goal of making recycling drink containers for the 10c refund more efficient than ever before,” said Managing Director, Re.Group and Return-It, David Singh. 

“With the ability to process 600 drink containers in just one minute, our new technology will have you in and out as quickly as possible.” 

There are 20 return points across Canberra, including cash-back depots, drop & go pods, drop & go points at participating IGAs and reverse vending machines. 

Three out of four ACT adults have participated in the scheme, the majority doing so monthly.

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Bin is the Senior Community Relationship Manager at Rise Above – a not-for-profit organisation that provides non-means-tested financial assistance and support to cancer patients and families in Canberra and the Queanbeyan-Palerang regional area. This includes vouchers for petrol and groceries, establishing pharmacy accounts, the payment of utility bills, exercise physiology and fertility preservation.

“Often when people get a cancer diagnosis it’s an absolute surprise and they’re financially already stretched,” says Bin.

Rise Above is currently supporting 836 cancer patients on a no-questions-asked basis and has seen a 53% growth in patient numbers in the past two years.

According to Bin, “Each year in the Canberra–Queanbeyan-Palerang regional area, there will be 2,400 new cancer cases. Right now, we are supporting 1 in 3 and we’d like to be supporting more.”

Two years ago, Bin moved to Rise Above from OzHarvest. She notes that in the not-for-profit sector, it’s crucial to receive regular and recurring funds.

“I was already rescuing food from going to landfill, so recycling cans was an obvious part of all of that,” says Bin.

Rise Above has partnered with the Canberra Southern Cross Club, where people can drop off eligible drink containers at the club’s Woden and Jamison sites. The charity receives the full 10c refund for every container as a donation.

Bin’s personal goal is to get even more households using the ACT Container Deposit Scheme to give back and explains how easy it is to use the scheme to support Rise Above.

“Put your daily recyclables, your bottles and cans – and next year your wine bottles – in your garage or in a neat storage area and make sure to take your lids off.”

“You can book for a mobile collection through the ReCollect app and can denote Rise Above as being the recipient. This can be a regular collection or an ad hoc collection.”

“Alternatively, collect your bottles and cans and take them to your local depot where you can select Rise Above on-screen or in your Return and Earn app. It’s as simple as a drop and go.”

Bin is hopeful that with the help of everyday recyclers, Rise Above can continue to support more local cancer patients. “If you want to be super glorious to us, we’d love for you to collect from your neighbours’ and family and make it a bigger collection!” “No matter how small, everyone can make a difference for someone facing the challenges of a cancer diagnosis. It can turn hopelessness into hope,” Bin says

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After the introduction of three ACT Container Deposit Scheme (CDS) collection bins at their school, teacher Laura Langston and her Year 3 and 4 class launched a marketing competition to get their fellow students excited about recycling.

Turner Primary School received a presentation on getting started with the ACT CDS in September 2025. Shortly after, the Parents and Citizens Association organised for three of the CDS’s distinctive purple bins to be delivered to the school. The funds raised from the collection of eligible drink containers through the ACT CDS are going back into sustainability initiatives for the school.

To ensure the bins were well used, Laura came up with the idea of a poster-making competition. The initiative was driven by the students in Laura’s class who wanted to promote recycling around the school.

The Year 3 and 4 students created posters that were showcased in assemblies, newsletters and information boards in the Junior and Senior school to encourage students of all ages to participate in the CDS. Some of the catch phrases the students created included: “Recycle today, save tomorrow” and “Recycle a bottle and get 10c back! Save our planet.”

The students also helped fill the bins themselves, working in lunch time crews and other groups to find, collect and sort containers from the playground – each eligible drink container of which raised 10c for the school.

Laura notes how educational the experience was as students discovered the wide range of containers that could be recycled. The kids were particularly excited to find out they could recycle their Up & Go drink cartons.

She adds that her students are very conscious of sustainability and the environment, and that the school has also been very focused on discussing these topics.

“We wanted to enquire further into sustainability as the school already had worm farms and compost bins,” Laura says. “It’s a great next step in our sustainability journey and the kids’ journeys.”

The posters have proved to be very effective at raising awareness of the benefits of recycling through the CDS. The purple bins have been particularly well used during major school events such as the end of year disco, Year 6 Farewell and end-of-year concerts in late 2025. “In one night, during the whole-school disco, we collected two wheely bins worth of cans!” Laura reports.

The P&C has also established some extra drop-off locations for containers outside the school and is implementing QR codes to inform the community about them. Parents and students can leave containers at those locations, then a member of the P&C collects them and brings them to the CDS deposit bins at the end of each term.

With the success of their initial purple bins, Turner Primary’s Stainability Portfolio have recently chosen to purchase 12 new bins for their outdoor spaces.

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When Andrew Chancellor moved from Sydney to Canberra in 2020 to be with Shanly Cheater, they began using the ACT Container Deposit Scheme (CDS) to receive the 10c refund for every eligible drink container and pay for weekly necessities such as groceries and bills. A few years later, they began putting the money towards their wedding, which took place in September 2025.

Shanly works in education and Andrew is a hospital wards-person, which has turned out to be handy for accessing containers. “I get cans from work, from my family, my mum, my grandma and my brother,” he says. “When we had our wedding to plan, we thought we would put it towards that. It was a cool thing to do.”

After their engagement, the couple dedicated one and a half years to their recycling efforts to save for their wedding. Andrew says the scheme helped them raise $2,000, from a staggering 20,000 containers. This amount allowed them to pay for the photography for their big day.

“It didn’t pay for our whole wedding, but it definitely helped,” says Andrew. “We paid for our photography through that.”

The ACT CDS currently has 20 return points in Canberra to recycle bottles, cans and cartons. Since the commencement of the scheme, over 466 million containers have been recycled via these return points – raising $46 million for ACT residents and community organisations.

Andrew and Shanly use the ACT CDS cash-back depot in Mitchell. He describes how easy it is to sort the bottles himself and receive the cash straight away.

“We have these big carton bags and fill up at least six of them which fit in my car, and then it’s only about a 5-minute drive to Mitchell.”

Andrew notes the incentive was not only financial, but also environmental. “We should do more recycling,” he believes. “It’s good to see even more containers in the scheme as well – we need to look after our planet.”

Even though their wedding is over, the couple plans to keep using the scheme and are even finding it’s something they can do as a couple.

“Shanly and I did it yesterday,” Andrew laughs. “We did it together, it’s a bit faster that way.”

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While each depot is being upgraded, the container counting machines will be temporarily unavailable.
You can still return eligible containers using the bag drop service, or our team will manually count and process your return and provide a cash refund on the spot.

Please allow extra time, as manual counting may cause delays and some additional noise on site.

• Phillip – Monday 13 April – Sunday 19 April
• Belconnen – Monday 20 April – Tuesday 28 April
• Fyshwick – Monday 18 May – Wednesday 27 May
• Mitchell – Monday 11 May – Friday 22 May

For updates, please keep an eye on the ACT CDS Facebook page.

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