Ms Ley said that it was critical that all levels of government continued “chipping away” at the contents of householders’ red bins for general waste. Ideally, she said, the red bin would be the smallest that householders used because it would have been stripped of all useful materials that might otherwise go into it.

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Speaking after the event she said that since the federal government had banned the export of mixed plastic waste after China ceased imports, a “recycling boom” had taken place in Australia.

Peter West, managing director of Coca-Cola in Australia and the Pacific, said there were “wonderful” benefits to the industry of container deposit schemes, though it had taken parts of the industry too long to recognise them.

He said though there was a two to three per cent cost in turnover to some businesses due to the increased cost built into the products, they made it much easier for businesses to hit targets for the amount of recycled materials that go into their packaging and in-house emission reduction targets.

He welcomed moves by Tasmania and Victoria to introduce container deposit schemes next year, joining NSW, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia. But he called on states to harmonise the schemes to make them easier for industry. At the moment each state accepts different types of bottles and uses different collection rules.

Mr West said the industry preferred not-for-profit schemes that kept costs low for the industry. Two new recycling plants built by Coca-Cola with Asahi, Cleanaway and the packaging firm Pact would not have gone ahead without the introduction of the schemes, he said.

Tom Daunt, the chief executive of Aldi in Australia, said to achieve the company’s goals of ensuring it was using a minimum of 30 per cent recycled plastic in food packaging and 50 per cent in all packaging Aldi would need “dramatically improved” access to recycled materials. He added that there was a shortfall of recycling infrastructure necessary to provide that.

She said in the wake of the federal government’s establishment of a recycling modernisation fund 87 recycling projects across Australia dealing with waste plastic, tyres, glass and paper had been approved, including 37 in NSW and 21 in Victoria, with Queensland yet to announce its plans.

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