No. We are open 7 days a week but close for public holidays
If a beverage container bears the approved refund marking and it was purchased in South Australia it can be returned to AAA Recycling Centre. View the EPA Guide for more details.
The container deposit scheme commenced in 1977 to reduce the problem caused by littered beverage containers. Over time it has been extended to cover other frequently littered containers used for bottled waters, small flavoured milk cartons, sports drinks, spirit based ready to drink beverages (whisky, cola, etc).
Yes. The South Australian container deposit scheme is only for containers sold in South Australia. Details provided on the declaration forms enable the EPA to monitor and follow up on the delivery of large volumes of containers to depots.
A maximum penalty of $30,000 can apply to persons who seek refunds on beverage containers sold outside of South Australia. Penalties also apply to persons providing false information on the declaration forms.
No. There is no obligation for you to sort containers before bringing them to AAA Recycling Centre, however, sorting and counting your containers into the various material types such as plastic water bottles, glass bottles, cans and cartons and making a written note of the number of each container type may save time when you bring them in.
- it will save you time. The tops / lids must be removed BEFORE AAA Recycling Centre can accept them
- plastic tops are usually a different type of plastic to the bottle – they must be separated for recycling
- leaving tops on containers can cause storage and transport problems. Plastic bottles with tops can explode when they’re compressed under high-pressure, causing the plastic bales to break apart.
No. Labels are fine, just no lids or liquid!
- if they are unclean or contaminated (ie containing paint, needles, etc),
- the refund marking is illegible or not visible.
- if we believe that the containers were not sold in SA and may have been purchased interstate, or
- if you refuse to complete a declaration when asked to do so.
They are recycled into other plastic items, eg pillow and sleeping bag stuffing, carpet, building insulation, fleece jackets, plastic buckets, fencing, pipes and plastic bottles.
Typically, the glass bottles that are recycled in SA will previously have contained alcoholic beverages and will be one of three colours; clear, brown or green. These different coloured glass bottles are separated for recycling. Glass will be turned into new glass bottles or fibreglass insulation, water filtration material or abrasives such as sandpaper.
- Low litter rates – South Australia and Northern Territory have the lowest rate of beverage containers found in litter in Australia.
- High resource recovery – rather than rely on new resources for production of beverage containers, the recovery and recycling of containers conserves resources and reduces pollution and energy consumption
- Reduced waste to landfill – the recovery of beverage containers through the container deposit scheme (in 2016–17 almost 600 million bottles and cans) means that there is much less waste sent to landfill.
South Australia has the highest recovery and recycling of beverage containers of any Australian state. The return rate for 2016–17 was 79.9%.
The scheme was awarded Heritage Icon status in 2006 recognising it as something that contributes to the quality of life in South Australia.
SA Recycling Fast Facts
Green is Good!
AAA Recycling Centre is committed to providing an ecologically sustainable recycling facility that will enable our customers to contribute to the well-being of our environment – by recycling their cans, PET containers, glass beverage bottles, milk + fruit juice cartons, scrap metals (ferrous and non-ferrous) and batteries.
Beverage Container Refund Guide
Items we CAN recycle
- Deposit-bearing bottles ($)
- Plastic bottles ($)
- Aluminium cans ($)
- Milk and juice cartons ($)
- Wine bottles and glass jars
- Steel cans
- Food tins
- Mobile phones
- Paper, newspapers and magazines
- Cardboard
- Film plastic eg. plastic bags
- Scrap metal ($) including:
- Stainless steel
- Copper
- Lead
- Brass
- Bronze
- Cast aluminium
- Aluminium
- Electrical cables
- Steel (car bodies, whitegoods)
- Electric motors, batteries, radiators
Items we CAN’T recycle
- Polystyrene
- Oil
- Tyres
- Gas bottles
- Asbestos
- Cars