THE introduction of the Return and Earn recycling scheme has been an overwhelming success, with Bathurst continuing to break records years later.
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The NSW Government's container deposit initiative has just surpassed five billion containers recycled since its launch in December 2017.
Bathurst has made a significant contribution to that figure, with 53.8 million being returned from this local government area alone.
More than half of that has come through Bathurst Recycling's automated depot in Upfold Street, which has had more than 33 million containers returned.
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In December and January, the site saw between 70,000 and 90,000 containers every day, except one.
A record was set just before Christmas, with 96,000 units going through the depot in one day.
Owner of Bathurst Recycling, Craig Clark, said the depot was "constantly busy", with cars streaming into the facility all day.
"We've certainly gone from strength to strength since we started; a lot of hard work has been put in, from having one machine to three machines now," he said. "I put it down to the general public and their enthusiasm to return all the cans and bottles, and get their money back."
He said the depot has the capability to process 120,000 to 130,000 containers daily, so it is possible to break the record set in December.
Member for Bathurst Paul Toole is happy to see people have embraced the scheme, as it means all those containers aren't going to waste.
"Previously, a lot of the cans and bottles ended up in our water streams, our rivers, and really impacted upon our environment," he said.
"They were also filling up landfill, and now that we're able to dispose of them through Return and Earn centres, people are able to get vouchers or come down [to Bathurst Recycling] and get cash for collecting them."
He said there were multiple Return and Earn sites around Bathurst and each one had been an overwhelming success.
"People have really got behind the scheme, people have actually done the right thing in recycling the bottles and out of that just in Bathurst alone we've had 53.8 million cans and bottles that have been recycled in that time, so it's been a huge success," Mr Toole said.
