The WA CDS delivers clear environmental and economic benefits. It has significantly improved recycling rates, increasing from 32 per cent before commencement to 66 per cent in2024/25. Five billion 10¢ containers have been collected, with every one of them recovered for recycling. 

The Scheme supports over 846 jobs, including 53 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and 127 people with disability. Around 40 per cent of refund points are operated by social enterprises, demonstrating strong community engagement and local benefit. The scheme has also delivered over $18 million in fundraising for charities, schools and community groups, with over 8,000 organisations now benefiting. 

• No, you cannot opt out. If you are deemed the First Responsible Supplier and are suppling eligible containers into WA you are required by law to sign a supply agreement with WARRRL and contribute to the scheme.
• It is an offence to sell an eligible container in Western Australia without entering into an agreement with WARRRL and registering your eligible containers via the business portal.

• Returnable/refillable containers are not eligible containers under the container deposit scheme and are exempt from scheme costs. Refer to regulation 3B.

• If you have a supply agreement fully signed with WARRRL you should have access. Please contact [email protected] to check this. QLD and WA schemes are run separately so you do not automatically have access to both portals even though the portals are very similar.

• The WA scheme doesn’t use registration numbers for products, each product is identified by its barcode.

• Each barcode is a unique product identifier so a change in the barcode will mean you need to register a new product.
• To do this log into the business portal, click on the ellipses button (3 dots) next to the product you wish to change the barcode of and then click on Copy. This will copy over the information of your product with the incorrect barcode. Then you can enter in the correct barcode and click on submit.
• Please email [email protected] to request the incorrect product barcode be removed from the system.

• If the product will no longer be supplied into WA, for example if the product is being discontinued, please get in touch with [email protected] to request the product be removed from the portal. Please note if the product is removed and then you decide to start supplying it into WA again you will need to re-register your product as if it was a new product.
• If you are no longer the First Responsible Supplier but the product will still be supplied into WA. Please complete the attached transfer form and send through the details of the new First Responsible Supplier to [email protected].

• The whole approval process can take up to 35 business days or 7 weeks (assuming no further information is required) however the product is usually approved earlier than this. This process cannot be escalated in any way.
• It’s recommended that you register your product on the portal as early as possible to ensure it is approved in time for release.

We guarantee that every 10¢ container returned to a Containers for Change refund point will be recycled. Australia’s internal capacity for recycling of some materials remains limited. However, investment in recycling infrastructure and innovation should see more options develop for on-shore recycling. 

In the meantime, we sell materials recovered through Containers to Change to authorized recycling facilities locally, interstate and overseas. 

Glass captured in the Scheme is sorted by colour and crushed in Perth, before being transferred to Orora in the Barossa Valley, where it is turned into new glass bottles. Orora has a strong appetite for glass from Containers for Change because it is high quality and so has significant additional benefits for the environment; the production of recycled glass uses 30% less energy than virgin glass and recycling 1,000kg of glass conserves more than 1,000kg of raw materials such as sand, soda ash, limestone and alumina. 

Aluminum is sold to authorized recyclers overseas as there are no facilities in Australia at this time. In 2024-25, aluminum from the Scheme was sold to recyclers in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and South Korea.

Drink cartons, such as chocolate milk cartons, are recycled in Spain.

 Approximately 20 per cent of steel received through the Scheme is recycled in NSW and WA, with 80 per cent being purchased by recyclers in India.  

 Most plastic PET containers are recycled at Martogg’s Circular AU food-grade plastic recycling facility in Melbourne. Martogg recently invested in new technology to identify and sort different bottles, grind them into plastic flakes and thoroughly wash them, resulting in recycled plastic that is 99.5% pure. 

 Plastic HDPE containers are all recycled in Australia.

The expansion will include the following containers, all of which must be between 150ml and 3L:

• Grape wine and spirits in glass bottles 
• Grape wine in plastic containers 
• Grape wine in sachets 
• Grape wine in casks 
• Water in casks 
• All fruit and vegetable juice, flavoured milk and cordial containers

Absolutely – because the glass collected through Containers for Change is such high quality it is sought after for bottle-to-bottle recycling.  

Glass is endlessly recyclable without a loss in quality, and so by returning your glass 10c containers to Containers for Change you’re saving precious virgin materials from being used. 

WARRRL’s glass recycling partner, Orora, has shared the following key information on glass recycling:

• Recycling 1,000kg of glass through Containers for Change conserves more than 1,000kg of raw materials 
• Recycling glass containers through Containers for Change means materials such as sand, soda ash, limestone, alumina + other products don’t need to be mined and processed for container glass manufacturing
• Producing glass from virgin materials requires 30 percent more energy than producing it from recycled glass.
• The energy saved from recycling just one glass bottle could operate a 100-watt light  bulb for up to four hours.
• Both sodium carbonate (soda ash) and calcium carbonate (limestone) release large quantities of CO2 upon melting in the glass production process.
• For every 6,000kg of cullet (recycled glass) used in the manufacturing feed, it lowers the CO2 emissions by ~1,000kg.
• Every 10% of cullet that replaces virgin batch reduces energy use by 2–3%.
• It is estimated that it takes approximately 1 million years for a glass bottle to break down in landfill.  

• A company that exports beverage products in eligible containers can claim the export rebate if the containers have had the scheme costs paid, and there is an export rebate agreement with WARRRL in effect.

• The lodgement deadline for export sale statements is the 15th day (or nearest business day) of the following month. For example, to claim exports made in March 2021 the deadline is Friday 14th of May 2021, being the nearest Business Day to the 15th of the month two months after the operating month.

• WA Return Recycle Renew (WARRRL) is the government-appointed coordinator of the container deposit scheme in WA, also known as Containers for Change. It is our responsibility to ensure the Scheme has adequate liquidity and meets recovery targets.

• As more consumers and WA residents take up the opportunity to return their eligible containers and receive a refund, more liquidity is needed to ensure the continued success of the Scheme. As such, the costs to operate the Scheme are expected to change over time, and WARRRL will continue to review Scheme pricing to maintain liquidity to fund the Scheme.
• Should recovery rates increase ahead of expectations or market conditions change, WARRRL reserves the right to amend pricing accordingly. However, we remain committed to providing an extensive notice period (as close to 16 weeks where possible) to support FRS and retailers in managing any changes.

• FRS are only charged for their share of the overall costs of the Scheme. This includes the cost of refund amounts paid for containers redeemed, plus operational costs of running the Scheme (such as refund point handling fees, logistics and processing costs, and other overheads of WARRRL). WARRRL does not derive any profit from operating the Scheme, as it is a registered not-for-profit entity.
• The exact formula used to determine this charge can be found here.

• If you have submitted incorrect sales volumes by mistake please make your adjustments on the portal. Detailed instructions on how to do this are located here.
• Please note your adjustments will be reflected in your next invoice after they have been approved by the auditor, the cut off date for sales volumes submissions and adjustments is the 15th of each month. If you submit your updated volumes after this date the adjustment will be reflected in the following months invoice.

• The cut off for sales volume submissions is the 15th of the following month. For example if you are submitting volumes for February you need to enter them in by the 15th of March. If you don’t submit on time the system will generate an estimate based on previously submitted sales volumes. You can still submit your sales volumes via the portal and any debits/credits from the estimate will be reflected in your following invoice.