Leader of the Greens Shane Rattenbury says the ACT would be "mad not to" move with NSW on a container deposit scheme.
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Despite intense opposition from the drinks industry, the NSW government has supported a community-backed recycling scheme for drinks containers, voting to adopt a 10¢ container deposit scheme to start in July 2017.
Ten cents will be paid for every drink container between 150 millilitres and three litres, and displaying a NSW CDS label, when returned to a depot or reverse vending machine.
The ACT has been preparing for a decision from the much larger jurisdiction, and has already given support in principle. In 2013, the Legislative Assembly passed a motion moved by Mr Rattenbury to support the progress of a container deposit scheme.
In January 2015, when NSW first raised the idea, Environment Minister Simon Corbell asked his department to advise on the NSW plan and on whether Canberra should follow suit.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr tweeted his support for such a scheme on Monday, and a government spokesman said they would be looking at the scheme's details once available.
While Canberrans shouldn't expect a local decision in the next few weeks, Mr Rattenbury said the territory would need to move quickly.
"Now that there is a clear decision with NSW, we will need to respond to that.
"Really, we'd be mad not to move with them. It's a very significant change and being a small island [within NSW] it makes sense for us to move with them."
He said there would be economies of scale to aligning quickly with NSW, and most containers came to the ACT through NSW, which was another reason it made sense to align with the state.
Minister Corbell has previously said that if NSW moved to adopt a container deposit scheme, that would be the trigger needed in Canberra.
He said there were benefits for both community groups – who could use the scheme for fundraisers – and for reducing litter.
At present, South Australia and the Northern Territory have such a scheme.
The South Australian government says its scheme has resulted in an 80 per cent return rate of drinks containers. In 2013-14 nearly 583 million containers were returned, with more than $58 million in refunds, according to the state's Environmental Protection Authority.
