Words: Varun Godinho
A total of 34.85 million drink containers were collected in the week commencing 12 January 2026, making it the highest-ever weekly collection for the two-year-old scheme.
Stacked end to end, those containers would stretch around 6000 kilometres, enough to run from the Melbourne CBD to Cairns, and back. The latest numbers eclipsed the previous weekly record of 33.9 million, which was set at the same time last year.
Return volumes have been significant this month, with over 33.6 million cans, bottles and cartons returned over the past three consecutive weeks (since 29 December 2025), another first for the scheme.
CDS Vic says that more containers were returned between Christmas and New Year than in previous years. During the fortnight from 22 December 2025 to 4 January 2026, Victorians returned 61.9 million containers through the scheme, surpassing last year’s total of 58.2 million in the same period.
The busiest days on record were 22 and 23 December 2025, with over 6.5 million and 6.6 million daily containers returned respectively.
“Every eligible drink container returned is one less piece of litter in the environment and another step towards a stronger circular economy,” VicReturn (the scheme’s coordinator) CEO Matt Davis says.
“Victorians are doing the right thing, returning drink containers in record numbers and helping to reduce litter across our streets, parks and waterways.”
CDS Vic has refunded $270 million to Victorians since the scheme commenced, including close to $3 million to community and not-for-profit groups across the state.
The scheme is vital to the state realising its ambition of targeting an 80 percent diversion of all material away from landfill by 2030.
Other states are also growing their own container return schemes. New South Wales and South Australia recently announced an expansion to the collection categories under their respective container deposit schemes.
From late 2027, those two states will accept wine and spirit bottles. Additionally, it will accept cordials and juice concentrate containers and larger containers of up to three litres of beverages already in the scheme, such as flavoured milk, fruit and vegetable juice
