HEPA CDS Behaviour Change – National Research Report
The Heads of EPAs (HEPA) have released the Container deposit scheme (CDS) behaviour change – national research report summary to inform the optimisation and alignment of participation in CDS across Australia and New Zealand.
The report summary contains key findings and recommendations and is an accompaniment to the Container Deposit Scheme Behaviour Change National Research, delivered in March 2023.
The National Research report includes comprehensive details on all facets of the methodology and findings including:
- Evaluation of the current perceptions and understanding of the CDSs in communities across jurisdictions with and without a CDS currently in place
- Evaluation of the current participation in the Container Deposit Schemes
- Assessment of the influencing factors driving participation in the CDSs
- Assessment of the different factors that sway CDS-related behaviours.
In total, 1,803 individuals were surveyed. The following key consumer segments were identified:
- Consistent users (60%): returned containers through the CDS regularly during the last 12 months.
- Irregular users (21%): returned containers through the CDS sometimes during the last 12 months.
- Never returned (19%): did not return containers through the CDS in the last 12 months.
The behavioural insights within the national research report summary and the key findings describe the recycling behaviours at home, the reasons for not always returning containers and the top three factors to encourage more CDS participation for each segment.
The key recommendations to optimise and align participation in CDSs across the jurisdictions include:
- promoting the circular economy and environmental benefits of CDS
- greater promotion of CDS return point sites and eligible containers
- enhancing the container return point experience through convenience and ease of use
- analysing the regulatory impact of increasing the refund amount
- removing the inconsistencies of CDS eligible beverage containers across all jurisdictions
- consider expanding the scope of eligible containers included in the container deposit schemes across all jurisdictions
The coordinated implementation of the recommendations will support jurisdictional objectives to align and harmonise key features of container deposit schemes and ensure consistent return strategies across all States and Territories.
