Container Deposit Scheme vs scrapping: when each one wins

If you’ve got a pile of empty cans, you have two ways to turn them into money: redeem them through your state’s Container Deposit Scheme for 10c each, or sell them as scrap aluminium by weight. For most people, most of the time, the answer is overwhelmingly clear — but there are real situations where scrapping wins, and knowing the difference can change what you do with a large quantity. Here’s the full picture.

The maths strongly favours the deposit scheme

As of May 2025, every Australian state and territory runs a Container Deposit Scheme, with Tasmania’s “Recycle Rewards” launch closing the final gap and making Australia the first continent fully covered by deposit return. The refund is a standard 10 cents per eligible container nationwide, regardless of which scheme operates in your state — Return and Earn in NSW, Containers for Change in Queensland and WA, CDS Vic in Victoria, and so on. They’re different brand names for the same 10c idea.

Now consider the weight. An empty aluminium drink can weighs roughly 15 grams. That means it takes about 67 cans to make a single kilogram. At scrap aluminium rates — which for used beverage cans typically run a few dollars per kilogram — that kilogram of cans is worth only a handful of dollars as scrap.

But those same 67 cans, redeemed through the CDS at 10c each, are worth $6.70.

The deposit scheme pays several times more than scrap value for eligible cans, and the gap isn’t close. For any container that carries the “10c refund” mark, redeeming is almost always the right call. This is the rare case in the scrap world where the obvious answer is also the correct one.

What’s eligible

The CDS covers most beverage containers between 150 mL and 3 litres — aluminium cans, glass bottles, PET and HDPE plastic bottles, and liquid paperboard cartons — provided they carry the 10c refund marking. To redeem, the container generally needs to be empty, uncrushed enough that the barcode is still readable, and marked as eligible in a participating state.

What’s not eligible (and therefore a scrap-only proposition):

• Plain milk bottles and cartons
• Glass wine and spirit bottles (with the exception of Queensland, and with WA, NT and others expanding to include them from mid-2026 onward)
• Cordial concentrate bottles
• Containers larger than 3 litres
• Any container without the 10c refund mark

The eligibility list is expanding. Western Australia and the Northern Territory both broaden their schemes to include wine, spirits and plain milk containers from 1 July 2026, and South Australia is adding wine and spirit bottles by the end of 2027. The trend is clearly toward broader coverage, so a container that’s scrap-only today may be redeemable in a year or two.

When scrapping actually wins

Despite the lopsided maths, there are genuine cases where the scrap yard is the better — or only — destination:

Ineligible containers. Anything without the 10c mark can’t be redeemed. Larger aluminium and steel containers, drums, jerry cans, and old stock that predates the scheme go to the yard. These are sold by weight as aluminium or steel scrap.

Crushed or damaged containers. If the barcode is unreadable — which often happens if you’ve compacted a load to save space — many collection points can’t process the refund. Crushed cans frequently end up as scrap by default, which is one reason it’s worth not crushing cans you intend to redeem.

Out-of-state or unmarked containers. A container marked for a state that isn’t yours, or one with no Australian refund mark at all, won’t redeem. Scrap is the fallback.

Non-beverage aluminium and steel. This is the big one. The CDS only covers drink containers. All the other aluminium and steel in your life — extrusion offcuts, sheet, cast parts, old cookware, appliance housings, auto parts — is pure scrap-yard territory and always has been. The CDS doesn’t touch it.

The practical workflow

If you accumulate cans alongside other metal, the efficient approach is to sort once:

1. Eligible beverage containers (10c mark, uncrushed, barcode intact) → your state’s CDS collection point or reverse vending machine. Don’t crush them first.
2. Everything else aluminium and steel → the scrap yard, sold by weight.

The only real trap is convenience-crushing a load of redeemable cans to fit them in the car, then discovering the collection point can’t scan them. For redemption, keep them intact. For genuine scrap aluminium, crush away — it doesn’t change the by-weight payout.

Bottom line

For marked beverage cans and bottles, the Container Deposit Scheme wins decisively — roughly $6.70 versus a couple of dollars for the same kilogram of cans. Reserve the scrap yard for what the CDS doesn’t cover: ineligible containers, damaged ones, and the much larger world of non-beverage aluminium and steel. Check current scrap aluminium rates for your city if you’re weighing up a load of genuine scrap, and check your state scheme’s locator for your nearest redemption point if you’ve got eligible cans.