Less than a week after opening, the site of the Rutherford Return and Earn reverse vending machine has been inundated with rubbish.
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Hundreds of cartons and boxes used to cart bottles and containers to the machine have been discarded next to the site, leaving a mess that some Maitland residents have described as a “disgrace”.
Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison, who has been a vocal critic of the roll-out of the NSW Government’s container deposit scheme, said that part of the responsibility had to rest with users of the recycling service.
“I agree that people should quite rightly take responsibility for their own rubbish,” she said.
However, she said the lack of locations nearby to dispose of the garbage was “indicative of how stupid the roll-out is”.
She said human nature dictated that most people wouldn’t take cartons or boxes with them once finished with the machine, and would instead dump them at the site.
The impromptu rubbish dump isn’t a problem limited to Maitland, and comes off the back of enormous state-wide popularity regarding the service, where residents can get 10 cents back on every eligible glass or plastic bottle.
The first full week of April saw more than 21 million containers deposited around the state.
