The reverse vending kiosks at Medowie and Salamander Bay received between 15,909 and 23,993 items a day in the past week alone.

Since the kiosk was switched on at Medowie Woolworth on December 1 it has received 610,011 bottles (as at January 13), paying out $61,001.

Salamander Bay is only marginally behind with received 471,519 bottles and cans cashed in for $47,151.

This money is either reimbursed in vouchers at the associated store (Woolworths in this case) or donated to charity.

Friday was one of the quieter days at Salamander Bay with 16,470 returned but there remained a curious buzz among people there, when the Examiner spoke to users.

One Sydney man on holidays brought down empty stubbies but was a little underwhelmed.

“For the effort I don’t think it’s really worth it,” he said.

“Not when the bottleshop has put cartons up by $4.”

Corlette grandmother Gayle Coates thought it was a great idea. With her grandchildren she emptied several bags of bottles and cans into the corresponding sections for glass, plastic and cans. Some cans were too damaged to be read while the wine bottles – not accepted under the scheme – were duly rejected.

“It’s the first time we’ve used it,” she said. “Like most things it’s going to take time to use it.”

In between the loading of bottles a cleaning contractor was on site emptying the bins provided for bags and boxes people used to bring their payload. The contractor also removed a jam from one of the machines that had stopped taking glass bottles. Signs advise people to take their rejected items home for recycling through their kerbside collection. Such has been the interest in the Medowie scheme that one man has created a Facebook group to notify residents of the kiosk’s status, to save people the drive if it was out of order. Third-year electrical apprentice Zac Thompson from Nelson Bay said it was his first time using the Salamander Bay kiosk.

“We’re keeping a crate at home so we can get the refunds,” he said.

“I’ve tried to come down here before but its not open before 7am or after 10pm.”

Mr Thompson earned $2.10 in glass and 40 cents in plastic. While he opted to take the money as a Woolworths voucher for his mum, he’s got other ideas in mind.

“We’re going to take up a collection at Surf Life Saving Club to earn a little money,” he said.

Since then Surf Life Saving has announced it has partnered with Envirobank to make Birubi one of 129 donation sites for containers.

The NSW container deposit scheme Return and Earn has passed the 28 million returns mark and, with more people taking part each day, the NSW Environment Protection Authority is reminding the community about what they “can” return to claim the 10c refund.

Most drink containers between 150ml and three litres are eligible. This includes glass, plastic, aluminium, steel and some cartons. Wine bottles and spirits bottles are not eligible, as research shows these drinks are more often consumed in the home and are less likely to end up as litter.

There are currently 324 collection points operating across the state and, with more being rolled out every week, EPA Acting Chair and Chief Executive Officer Mark Gifford said it was a good idea for people using the system for the first time to check the list of eligible containers before heading out to their local collection point.

“The list of eligible containers has been created based on an analysis of the types of containers that are most often found in the litter stream, and it matches closely to other states with container deposit schemes in place, like South Australia and the Northern Territory,” Mr Gifford said.

More than 160 million drink containers are littered across the state each year, and drink containers make up almost half the volume of total litter in NSW.

 “As more people across NSW get on board with Return and Earn, or continue to recycle through their local council collections, we expect to see a significant reduction in the millions of containers that are tossed onto roadsides, parks and waterways each year.”

Containers returned to a reverse vending machine or over-the-counter collection point do not need to be in pristine condition but should be empty and uncrushed, and have the label intact. This is to ensure the label can be scanned at the collection point and the container be confirmed as eligible for the 10c return.

Ineligible containers should be recycled where possible, or disposed of in appropriate bins.

Containers that cannot be deposited for a refund include:

 More information about eligible containers, local collection points and the scheme generally is available at www.returnandearn.org.au