The scheme this week saw its one millionth container collected, with Canberrans James Cottee and Emily Scott depositing the bottle that led to the tally notch up seven figures.

Since it started on June 30, ACT residents have returned 1,000,944 containers, allowing them to be reused and saved from landfill. On average, that's about 20,000 bottles each day.

City Services Minister Meegan Fitzharris said it was reassuring to see a quick uptake of the recycling scheme.

"The fact that 1,000,944 containers have already been returned shows that Canberrans are really getting behind the scheme," Ms Fitzharris said.

"Charity partners The Salvation Army and St Vincent de Paul are also benefiting, with around 10 per cent of the community donating the proceeds to charity, and shopfronts getting more people through their doors."

Aluminium cans have been the most popular type of container returned since the scheme began, with more 549,000 handed back.

Glass bottles came in second with just under 240,000, while 186,000 PET containers were brought back.

The tally also included almost 15,000 containers made of liquid paperboard, often used for milk cartons, 10,000 HDPE containers and 393 steel containers.

"When containers are returned they are recycled and turned into a range of other products, including new cans and bottles, fencing, garden furniture, flooring and aggregate materials for road base," Ms Fitzharris said.

In the first month, more than 450,000 containers were returned to Canberra's nine collection points.

The number of collection points is set to double, with 18 return points expected to be in operation by July 2019.

Rather than operate as a reverse vending machine, as seen in NSW, Canberra's scheme involves users returning their containers to a store front, with a refund of 10 cents issued within a few days of the deposit.

The ACT scheme was introduced to be as close as possible to the one seen over the border, which started in January this year.

It was the first time Kambah resident Emily Scott had used the service, depositing more than 500 bottles to the depot site in Fyshwick on Thursday when she was told she returned the one millionth container.

"There were lots of beer bottles and energy drinks and iced coffee containers that we managed to collect and hand in," Ms Scott said.

"It was a big surprise to be the person to deposit the millionth container."

Collection points are available at Fyshwick, Mitchell, Phillip, Tuggeranong, Belconnen and Dickson.