Dr. Dominic Hogg:

I will start with the cost. In our view, a good system would be designed with a central element much as was suggested in the Repak submission. That system would be entitled to retain the unclaimed deposits from those who decided not to return the beverage containers. The fees to the producers, the beverage companies and the importers would have to make up the gap between the running of the whole system and on the plus side, income, the money coming from deposits that people did not claim and the revenue from the sale of the materials. If there is a low level of return the value of the unclaimed deposits can fund the whole system. We would like to see something in legislation that would push for high return rates from the scheme. If it goes up to 90% or just above that and the system is very efficient, in our calculation the order of magnitude of the cost to the beverage manufacturers and importers would be of the order of 1 cent per container.