The Scouts of East Maitland leapt  to embrace the scheme, which will kick off in July 2017.

While community groups such as the Scouts will leverage the scheme for much-needed funds, participants will reinforce the vital message that we all are responsible for caring for our environment and recycling precious resources.

It’s these broader values that have many people celebrating.

According to Greenpeace Australia Pacific, a 10 per cent deposit on containers is the only proven scheme globally that has achieved high rates of recycling and massively reduced the effects of littering on wildlilfe.

A container deposit refund scheme has operated for more than 30 years in South Australia, and that state’s recycling rates are double those elsewhere in the country.

For years, environmental groups have lobbied the governments of our other states and territories to follow South Australia’s lead.

The Northern Territory jumped on board several years ago and Queensland is considering its position.

Any way you cut it, there is a great deal of work yet to be done.

Clean Up Australia’s 2015 Annual Rubbish Report identified beverage containers and associated detritus as the number one rubbish group.

Beverage containers accounted for 35.8 per cent of plastics, 70.7 per cent of metals and 63.4 per cent of glass collected that year.

And in NSW alone an estimated 160 million drink containers end up in streets and waterways.

This, according to PlanetArk, accounts for 44 per cent of the total litter by volume in NSW.

By offering incentive-based recycling, people are encouraged to build positive environmentally friendly behaviours. They can obtain their deposits at automated machines and depots.

And the scheme's cost? It could be nil thanks to the sale of glass, PET and other materials covers, and it could generate thousands of new jobs in the recycling industry.

Well done to the NSW Government for bringing this scheme to fruition. It’s a bottler of an idea.