Make a return
CDS Vic provides a 10 cent refund for every eligible drink container returned. Each bottle, can and carton that you return helps to divert valuable containers from landfill.
There are hundreds of refund points across Victoria, so look out for your local. The network has more than 600 refund points.
Get involved
In partnership with city councils, these baskets offer a new way to recycle containers on the go.
Are you a school that wants to get involved with CDS Vic? You will find lots of resources and guidance here.
Find out more about participating in Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme.
Congratulations to the winners of our Win A Million Cents competition, who have each landed themselves A Million Cents!
Our partners
AFL Victoria and CDS Vic have teamed up to support local football clubs across the state in raising funds and promoting sustainability. Through this exciting partnership, CDS Vic is now the Official Recycling Partner of AFL Victoria until 2027.
Victoria's Container Deposit Scheme is proud to partner with Sustainability Victoria's ResourceSmart Schools to empower Victorian schools to recycle and reduce waste.
CDS Vic is proud to announce its groundbreaking partnership with Tennis Victoria. This exciting initiative aims to reduce waste, promote recycling, and support grassroots tennis communities across the state to raise funds.
We have joined forces with Zoos Victoria for a new campaign with a big mission to protect some of our most threatened frog species by recycling your drink containers.
About us
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From holiday houseboats to community change with CDS Vic
If you ask Lucy Bromley, there's no better way to see the Murray River than from a houseboat. That makes sense – she's operations manager for a company that rents them out – but standing down at their marina, you can see her point.
The water is beautiful and the boats are floating beach houses. People hire them for family holidays, golf trips, big birthdays and the like. It's a very scenic way to get your loved ones together, and you can change your view whenever you like.
That sense of ease had to carry through to the All Seasons Houseboats' approach to Victoria's Container Deposit Scheme. They wanted to make it straightforward for their customers and for their staff, while doing their bit for the environment and their community.
"Rather than having eligible containers end up in landfill, or worse, the river environment, we wanted to create a simple system," Lucy says.
What that means in practise is clearly labelled bins on each boat, which are then emptied and sorted by staff when the boats come back to the marina. From there, larger bins are collected and swapped out by the team from the local depot. Their support has been instrumental in the program's success.
"They take care of the counting, sorting and processing, so it's a really seamless system for us. It fits naturally into our existing operations without adding a lot of extra work," Lucy says, adding that the depot charges two cents per container for this service.
They get some significant numbers of containers, too, ranging from 8-1200 per week in the cooler months and up to 3500 in the peak summer season.
"Since starting the program in June 2025, we've recycled more than 80,000 eligible containers, diverting an estimated 1.2 to 2 tonnes of recyclable material from landfill and helping keep our Murray River environment cleaner," Lucy says.
It's a point of pride for the team that those refunds go to community groups that need a boost. Local primary schools, sports clubs, and charitable foundations have received donations from houseboat CDS Vic funds.
To Lucy and the team, it just makes sense.
"Our guests recycle while enjoying the Murray River, those containers are kept out of landfill and the river system, and the proceeds are invested straight back into strengthening the community that supports our business," she says.
Beautifully put, we think.
