ALMOST 30 million drink containers have been taken to Bathurst's three Return and Earn sites in the two years since the scheme came to the city.
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After an inauspicious start, when the city's first Return and Earn reverse vending machine in South Bathurst upset neighbours, the scheme has since found its feet.
Busy reverse vending machines now operate from the Bathurst Service Centre on Bradwardine Road and the Bathurst Community Op Shop on Lions Club Drive, while Bathurst Recycling in Upfold Street has an automated depot, where containers can be counted and sorted in bulk, and offers a mobile collection trailer that travels for hundreds of kilometres.
An Environment Protection Authority spokesperson said more than 29,778,400 containers had been returned to the two local reverse vending machines and one automated depot since the scheme began.
The Bathurst Recycling automated depot has been the strongest performer of the three, according to the EPA spokesperson, with more than 16,208,000 containers returned there alone.
More than five million containers are being returned around the state every day.
Mayor Bobby Bourke has had a chance to see the popularity of the scheme close up through his association with the Bathurst Community Op Shop.
"It's constant all day," he said of the foot traffic at the op shop's machine.
"It gets cleaned twice a day and gets emptied three times a day. There are a lot [of containers] coming in."
He said he was initially concerned there would be rubbish left around the vending machine, but that had not proved to be the case.
"People look after it," he said. "They put their cartons in the bins provided.
"We also have a couple of volunteers keep an eye on it."
Cr Bourke said everyone from grandparents to children were using the op shop's machine.
"Some people come in with just the one bag [of drink containers] and get $1 or $2," he said.
