Re the article ‘‘Return and earn criticism’’ (Leader, March 7).
The 15c tax on drink containers is a tax to support the recycling industry.
If the state government were serious about families collecting their 10c back they would have compelled the supermarket chains and their chains of bottle shops to accept returns for cash.
Buy a slab, keep the empties, take the carton back and get $2.40 off your next slab.
Too easy which is why it won’t happen. You are not supposed to get your 10c back. You are supposed to keep putting your cans and bottles in the yellow bins.
If it helps people feel better just call it a sugar/alcohol excise. Same difference.
Michael Harrington, Bonnet Bay
Let’s design a "Container/Return Refund Scheme" whereby we charge 30 cents per item say in a carton of 24 items, totalling $7.20 per carton.
Then let’s refund the buyer 10 cents per item ($2.40 per carton) on the purchaser going out of their way to collect the items and then use their time and expenses to drive to a collection point and line up to redeem their refund.
Let’s push the notion "we are greening the planet" and we can also pick up the value of the goods being recycled.
If we make the scheme difficult we can also possibly only get a 10 per cent participation rate, turning the 10 cent refund per item to virtually 1 cent per item, thus making it $6.96 per carton.
If anyone argues with the scheme calling it an additional tax, we counter this by using the green ticket again and informing them it is a refund scheme.
With the amount of alcohol purchased in cartons, it sounds like someone is getting their pants pulled down - and if it walks, talks and smells like a tax it usually is.
People will say that the people who designed the scheme did not think it through, I would say they definitely did as it is a win win situation for them.
Glenn Jackson, Cronulla
