The Parliamentary Inquiry into improving Queensland’s Container Refund Scheme has been completed and a report is available on the Parliament website: Improving Queensland’s Container Refund Scheme – Health, Environment and Innovation Committee (PDF, 3.7MB)

The Government Response to the Inquiry has been tabled and is available on the Parliamentary Health, Environment and Innovation Committee webpage. To support the Government Response, the Waste Reduction and Recycling (Strengthening the Container Refund Scheme) Amendment Bill 2025 has been introduced to Parliament.

Improving the container refund scheme

On 16 October 2025, the Health, Environment and Innovation Committee tabled its report Improving Queensland’s Container Refund Scheme, Report No. 14 (PDF, 3.7MB) (the Report). The Committee made 21 recommendations which included improving the governance, transparency and accountability of Queensland’s container refund scheme (the Scheme).

The Inquiry found a number of concerning aspects of the Scheme, including amongst other things:

  • weaknesses in the governance and oversight of the Scheme
  • issues with the composition of the scheme coordinator’s board, currently dominated by large beverage manufacturers
  • concerns with the governance practices of the scheme coordinator and its relationship with container refund point operators
  • significant surpluses being held by the scheme coordinator, which is used to offset costs for the beverage industry, rather than be reinvested to improve the Scheme or provide benefits to environmental or charitable programs
  • a lack of accountability and transparency around the scheme coordinator
  • an absence of a safe, transparent and independent complaints process.

The Queensland Government’s response to the Report supports or supports-in-principle 20 out of the 21 recommendations. Recommendation 11, to increase the refund amount, is not supported as these costs are likely to be passed onto Queenslanders.

The Government Response committed to legislative amendments to address the recommendations and improve governance and oversight of the Scheme to increase its efficiency and effectiveness and ensure public confidence.

The Waste Reduction and Recycling (Strengthening the Container Refund Scheme) Amendment Bill (the Bill) 2026 will give effect to the Queensland Government’s response and deliver amendments that focus on addressing governance and oversight of the Scheme.

What the Waste Reduction and Recycling (Strengthening the Container Refund Scheme) Amendment Bill includes

To strengthen the governance and oversight of the Scheme, the Bill amends the Waste Reduction and Recycling Act 2011 by:

  • enhancing oversight mechanisms for the Scheme, similar to that of statutory authorities and government-owned corporations
  • establishing a performance management framework for the PRO
  • requiring an annual audit of the PRO Board’s performance by an independent auditor
  • enabling the Minister to require an audit of the PRO
  • establishing a fixed term of no more than seven years for appointment of the PRO and renewal framework
  • requiring that all director appointments to the Board be approved by the Minister
  • providing for the composition of the Board, including ensuring there is expertise in waste and recycling, local government, community and social enterprise capability
  • requiring that the majority of directors of the Board be independent of the beverage industry
  • establishing fixed term appointments for directors of the Board, being no more than three years, and regular renewal
  • expanding the functions of the PRO to include supporting environmental or community programmes as well as the development of infrastructure required to recycle or transport waste in Queensland
  • requiring the PRO to have regard to the economic viability of proposed refund points, their impact on the network and the proximity to existing refund points
  • adopting legislative safeguards to prevent unfair conduct by the PRO
  • clarifying that the PRO is a unit of public administration for the purposes of the Crime and Corruption Act 2001.

To improve transparency and enhance the operation of the Scheme, the Bill:

  • broadens existing strategic and operational plan requirements to provide the PRO must prepare and publish additional reports, plans and other information relating to the Scheme
  • requires the development of a governance and investment plan which will include the investment and allocation of surplus and retained scheme funds
  • requires the development of a network of container refund points plan that will detail the plan for expansion of the Scheme’s network and will ensure that the economic viability of the existing return points are considered
  • provides support for small beverage manufacturers through an exemption mechanism to provide price relief for small beverage manufacturers.
Last updated:
26 March 2026