The Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia (WMRR) welcomes the tabling of the Health, Environment & Innovation Committee’s report Improving Queensland’s Container Refund Scheme (QLD CRS) and thanks the Queensland Government for initiating and supporting this Inquiry.
While industry has long recognised the strong potential of Queensland’s container refund scheme (CRS) to deliver environmental, economic, and community benefits, the committee’s findings – inclusive of 21 recommendations – affirm deeply held concerns about the scheme’s governance, transparency and accountability.
WMRR acknowledges that Queensland’s CRS has already delivered some positive outcomes: increased recovery rates and measurable reductions in litter. But as the committee report makes clear, those achievements fall short of the scheme’s full promise. The core systemic issues—governance design, conflicts of interest, insufficient transparency, and weak accountability — must now be addressed.
Key observations and concerns raised by the committee include:
- COEX, despite its not-for-profit status, has accumulated substantial retained earnings with little transparency on how funds are reinvested. It highlighted the gap between the revenue generated by the scheme (over $2.5 billion since inception) and what has been returned to Queenslanders: less than 40 per cent through refunds, and less than 2 per cent to charities.
- The committee expressed concern that COEX was appointed without an open tender process, and that beverage industry interests were overrepresented on its board.
- The recovery performance is also under scrutiny. Although COEX has exceeded the target for 307 refund points, it has never met the legislated goal of 85 per cent container recovery.
- It found that “problems … were ‘baked into’ the scheme’s structure from the outset,” creating governance and accountability failures within COEX (Container Exchange) as the appointed Product Responsibility Organisation (PRO).
- The committee received 119 submissions – many on a confidential or anonymous basis – reflecting serious apprehension from operators and stakeholders about reprisal.
- The report documents serious allegations including conflicts of interest, unfair contracts, misleading conduct, bullying and harassment, which, if substantiated, undermine both scheme integrity and the viability of participating operators.
- The committee has referred 10 allegations to the Crime and Corruption Commission for further consideration.
- On governance reform, the committee recommends stronger oversight, including requiring ministerial approval of board appointments, publishing strategic and operational plans, subjecting COEX to an independent external complaints body, and introducing safeguards akin to those in other states.
The committee’s chair, Rob Molhoek MP, observed that though the scheme had delivered real benefits (e.g. increasing Queensland’s beverage container recovery from 18 per cent to 67.1 per cent, and reducing litter by about 60% since launch), the structural and operational deficiencies demand urgent reform.
“The committee’s report validates what the waste and resource recovery industry, and many operators have long asserted: the structure and leadership of COEX have created obstacles that prevent the scheme from fulfilling its potential,” said Gayle Sloan, CEO of WMRR.
“We welcome the 21 recommendations and urge the Queensland Government to act decisively — to reform the governance model, enhance openness, embed independent oversight, and ensure genuine partnership between industry, government and community.”
WMRR stands ready to engage constructively with the Queensland Government, COEX, and all stakeholders to drive implementation of meaningful reform, so that the Queensland community and resource recovery sector finally see the full benefits of a well-functioning container refund scheme