Across Aotearoa New Zealand, and Australia single‑use beverage bottles—plastic, glass, cans, cartons—are produced in staggering numbers and poorly returned for recycling

Recycling is failing us

Project Hydrosol uses a fully circular packaging program for all trade customers

This means every container delivered is intended to be returned and reused. The goal is to learn about the packaging problem we have here in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and one day bring some balance back to our overly consumptive mindset.

Shifting this single-use mindset is Project Hydrosol’s main driver for establishing and maintaining our circular packaging program.

We’re realistic - we don’t expect change overnight, but we’re challenging ourselves to make an impact.

Our Conclusion

New Zealand is drowning in single‑use beverage containers. Billions are wasted each year, with nearly 40% of recyclable bottles ending up in landfill. Kerbside systems are failing, and without a container deposit scheme or stronger laws, return rates will stay low.

Project Hydrosol will remain on its 100% circular packaging program

While we have partners with one-way packaging programs, we encourage them to join the movement.

We hope to inspire others to develop and maintain their own systems as we evolve ours.

Follow us on the journey

  • Over 2 billion beverage containers are sold annually, of which around half to two-thirds never make it back for recycling. Many end up littered, stockpiled, or landfilled (environment.govt.nz).

    Nearly 1.76 billion plastic containers are trashed each year.

    Roughly 97 million bottles end up in the rubbish, meaning 39% of recyclable containers by weight are landfilled (recorp.co.nz).

    In 2019, plastic made up 61% of beach litter, with single‑use beverage containers comprising 24% of all litter (en.wikipedia.org).

    In the 23-24 reporting year Australia consumed 4.0 million tonnes of plastic products and packaging, the national plastics recovery rate (both recycling and energy recovery) was 14%… (dcceew.org.au)

    • Curbside recycling is patchy and inefficient, with councils differing in what they accept. About 57% of plastic packaging is not recyclable in practice, ranking NZ second‑last in an international comparison (newsroom.co.nz). This puts us 2nd worst only to Brazil, for nations that track this number. If you’re wondering where the other 43% goes, it’s in the landfill… out of sight, out of mind.

    • Globally, only about 9% of all plastics have ever been recycled (greenpeace.org), and the effectiveness is even lower for soft plastics used in bottles.

    • No NZ functioning container deposit return scheme (CDRS) yet: NZ planned to introduce one, but it was deferred in March 2023 and remains pending (environment.govt.nz).

    • Curbside systems are voluntary, inconsistent, and underfunded meaning many recyclable materials don't get sorted correctly.

    • Australia has had success with their CDS, NSW started their scheme, Return and Earn, on December 1, 2017. Communities across the state have made recycling a part of their everyday routine. Since the scheme began, more than 12-billion containers have been returned and the volume of drink container litter has fallen by 52%.

    • Massive material loss: over 1.7 billion containers are wasted annually instead of recycled (environment.govt.nz). With the NZ population estimated at 5.33M (stats.govt.nz), each Kiwi is wasting over 300 containers per year. Buying, using and putting in the ground almost a container a day, every day, and it’s not even the consumer’s fault. Try doing a supermarket shop without coming home with a trolley full of containers, with no option to return and recycle effectively.

    • Environmental harm: bottles contribute heavily to litter, plastic pollution, and ecological damage, including threats to marine life and increased carbon emissions.

    • A Container Return Scheme with a 20c refundable deposit plus a small processing fee (3–5c) could drive return rates to 85–90%, mirroring successful overseas systems (thespinoff.co.nz).

    • Public support is high—70–80% of Kiwis back such a scheme (consumer.org.nz).

    • A proposal for an Auckland container return program was canned (2023, beehive.govt.nz) in favour of helping with the rising cost of living, which seems to be working well…