The initiative commenced on December 1 last year and it offers the community the chance to earn a 10-cent refund on cans and selected plastic and glass bottles.

There are 31 return points across the region and they include a mix of reverse vending machines (RVMs), over-the-counter points and an automated bulky depot in Bathurst.

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Across NSW, more than 944 million containers have been returned in the past 12 months, with around 50 million of those in the Central West and Orana.

Dubbo was by far the most popular location for returns in the region, with 12,195,657 items fed into the city’s two RVMs.

Coming in with the second highest number of returns was Bathurst, with 9,570,302 items returned to the city’s four collection points.

Orange’s two RVMs received 6,398,147 items during the 12-month period, while 5,219,569 were accepted at Young’s three machines.

This was followed by Cowra (4,291,099), Parkes (3,770,053), Lithgow (3,481,092), Wellington (2,897,545), Mudgee (1,019,559) and Forbes (440,805).

All other return centres in the region operate over-the-counter in retail outlets and figures are not available for these locations.

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A NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) spokeswoman has praised Central West and Orana residents for the high number of returns during the scheme’s inaugural year.

“The scheme has been very well embraced by communities,” he said.

With summer and the Christmas/New Year holiday season fast approaching, the EPA spokeswoman said an increase in average return volumes was anticipated.

“We encourage people to plan ahead for their Return and Earn experience and check the website for details of return points nearest to them including whether reverse vending machines are nearing capacity,” she said.

“Weekends are popular return days so it’s best to go during the week if possible.”

The EPA spokeswoman said possible RVM closures were anticipated over the festive period, however, the dates were still being finalised.

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“Last year the RVM network was closed on Christmas Day and reopened on Boxing Day and we expect it to be the same this year but people should check the Return and Earn website (www.returnandearn.org.au) for updates,” she said.

“Over-the-counter and automated depot trading hours over this period are determined by each individual business.”

The container deposit scheme rewards consumers for returning containers, cans and bottles to designated recycling points with a 10 cent refund per eligible container. Check out the video.

The refund can be:

Collected containers will be processed through a counting and sorting centre in Western Sydney.

They will then be recycled and sold into both domestic and export markets. Recovering these resources will create a closed loop, making a sustainable future possible.

The majority of containers covered under this scheme are beverage containers ranging from 150 millilitres to 3 litres. Containers can be made from:

Containers that are not included in the Scheme and, therefore, do not qualify for a refund are:

These exceptions are like those in the South Australian and Northern Territory container deposit schemes, to aid consistency.