Tesch calls for more Return and Earn machines

Member for Gosford Ms Liesl Tesch has called on the NSW Government to replace the Return and Earn machine destroyed in the Umina Mall fire over a year ago.

She has also called on the Government to provide extra machines on the Peninsula to meet demand and to cover for breakdowns.

"The Umina Mall fire in January 2019 destroyed the former Return and Earn machine at that site but the NSW Government has failed to replace this vital facility in another location," she said.

She said the remaining machine in Woy Woy was often over-filled and regularly broke down.

Ms Tesch was commenting on a statement by Member for Terrigal Mr Adam Crouch that Woy Woy and Umina Return and Earn stations have recycled a combined total 7,858,704 drink containers in the two years of their operation.

He said the volume through the Umina Return and Earn was 4,238,941 and at Woy Woy it was 3,619,763.

Ms Tesch said: "While there are four reverse vending machines in the Terrigal electorate, there is only one operating on the whole Peninsula.

"That isn't fair."

She said there were errors in the information supplied by Mr Crouch about the location of the Woy Woy machine.

"Mr Crouch is talking about a Return and Earn machine in Woy Woy Woolworths that doesn't exist," she said.

"If Mr Crouch visited Woy Woy he would know that it probably refers to a machine in a completely unrelated carpark in Oval Ave.

"The government has failed to act and, after several weeks of trying, I've had no response to my attempts to speak with representatives from NSW Department of Environment, provided by the Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment, to try and fix the errors.

"Since the program started two years ago, Return and Earn has now soared past 130 million drink containers across the 20 collection points on the Central Coast," Mr Crouch said.

"The growth of Return and Earn on the Coast has been phenomenal and it highlights a shift in our community's thinking and behavior around litter," he said.

SOURCE:

Media release, 27 Feb 2020

Liesl Tesch, Member for Gosford

Media release, 25 Feb 2020

Adam Crouch, Parliamentary Secretary for Central Coast