Media Release

Revolutionary recycling technology in an Australian first


An innovative Australian-owned company will this month launch world-first technology to revolutionise Australia’s recycling industry and create jobs.

Container Deposit Systems (CDS) has invested $3.5 million over the past four years to develop a ground-breaking beverage container sorting and counting system using adaptable vision technology.

Developed in partnership with Sage Automation, Macweld Industries and University of South Australia, the system takes thousands of images per item to identify and sort glass, plastic, aluminium, milk and juice containers returned in any condition by people in the community seeking their 10-cent deposit.

CDS Chairman Brett Duncanson said the Australian conceived and manufactured technology assures the value of each container is accurately recorded and sends the data to a wireless network, which is available to government and regulators in real time.

The technology significantly improves on the productivity, safety and accuracy of existing drink container recycling solutions. It will lead to a superior consumer experience at recycling depots and circumvent probity issues that arise out of cash industries.

Container deposit schemes will be introduced in most States and Territories by mid-2019, preventing an estimated 10 billion drink containers per year from going to landfill.

Australian Capital Territory will introduce its container deposit scheme in June, followed by Queensland in November and Western Australia to follow. New South Wales introduced its scheme last December.

“These States and territories will follow South Australia and the Northern Territory, which have had container deposit schemes in place for many years, more than 40 years in the case of SA,” Mr Duncanson said.

“This experience means South Australians have a superior knowledge and understanding of the intricacies of container recycling and the broader industry, allowing SA businesses to lead the charge in recycling innovation.

“The CDS technology and container deposit schemes have the capacity to relieve pressure on local councils and shires dealing with export bans on many recycled household materials following the Chinese Government’s recently introduced National Sword policy.

In SA the container deposit scheme delivers such a quality product that all returned containers are recycled locally or exported overseas”

“The community will have a local recycling avenue for beverage containers. We will also see the community actively retrieving deposit containers from the litter stream and the ability to return those containers without the reliance on bar codes “

CDS technology is available for lease. The company provides the system along with maintenance, recycling depot design and approvals, finance, data collection, installation and ongoing research and development support.

The CDS system is designed to meet Australian regulatory specifications and respective state deposit scheme requirements.

CDS technology was developed with the assistance of grants from Green Industries SA, which provides SA Government funding for businesses and industry to develop new products and technology for waste management and resource efficiency.

www.containerdepositsystems.com.au

Download CDS Media Release PDF

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