December 8 2017

It has been one week since the launch of ‘Return and Earn’ and so far there has been positive feedback about the program.

The program had a soggy start as the rain came down in the early hours of operation and most likely made people wait until late Saturday or early Sunday to try it out.

For those who don’t know, ‘Return and Earn’ is where you can go to the back of Central IGA, deposit select types cans and bottles into a machine and can either give the proceeds to charity, get vouchers to use or deposit the money to your PayPal account.

The machine is operational from 7am until 10pm each day and aside from Deniliquin, Finley has an over the counter collection point at IGA Finley whilst Leeton has a machine at Woolworths.

Users have commented on the relative ease of using the machine but have also made note that the bottles and cans have to be in excellent condition otherwise they won’t be accepted.

Users also have to take care in where they are parking as the area where the machine is located at is also a loading area and so trucks and other vehicles need to come and go freely with worrying about vehicles and pedestrians.

Others are hoping to program expands to places like Hay and the lack of information that the Leeton machine was out of action and one commented that they are unhappy that prices of drinks have risen to accommodate the program.

To further elaborate, several drink makers have come aboard the program and raised prices by 10 cents per bottle or can to offset the price that is given back to consumers.

Two million containers have been deposited across NSW since the launch, that is $200,000 that depositors have received.

If you need the app for your phone, please visit the app website and the website also shows you how to use the app and the machine.

It will be interesting to see if the program contains to be a success and entice Edward River Council to start kerbside recycling to ensure a wider amount of material can be recycled for later use.