Trevallyn Primary School pupils got a lesson in sustainability last week, as they counted and sorted bottles collected from Catch it in the Catchment.
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Many of the pupils took part in Catch it in the Catchment, which was a clean-up event aimed at clearing rubbish along the Tamar River.
Catch it in the Catchment co-ordinator Trish Haeusler said she wanted the event to continue to educate the community after the cleanup was held.
"Part of that education was about these containers that would otherwise go into the container deposit scheme," she said.
"To be able to use some of this information for further activities that are school-based - that is certainly our aim.
"We want to continue that education and change behaviour and gain support for the container deposit scheme."
Tasmania doesn't currently have a container deposit scheme, with one set to implemented by the state government in 2022.
About 1841 containers were sorted by the Trevallyn Primary pupils.
Ms Haeusler said the bottles sorted by the pupils were mostly from the East Tamar and Launceston cleanup areas.
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Going by the South Australian container deposit scheme (10 cents per container), that amount of containers would yield $184.10.
"As much as we'd love to see it [container deposit scheme] here now because we don't want to see that many containers in the Tamar next year," Mr Haeusler said.
"I understand that getting this all in place takes a bit of time but we're hoping it comes in with the full complement of aims it's wanting to achieve."
About 1.2 tonnes of rubbish was collected from Catch it in the Catchment overall.
"Remember, this was only on a Sunday morning four a couple of hours so this would be a sample of what's there and I imagine there's a helluva lot more - but 1841 [containers] is pretty good," Ms Haeusler said.
"Because we'll be doing this next year, it will be interesting to see as this goes on over the next couple of years when that scheme comes in.
"What kind of changes it will bring about - will we see less of this stuff?"
Ms Haeusler said a number of odd items were recovered from the cleanup, including shopping trolleys and tyres.
"A lot of the bottles and containers collected were old too, I remember thinking 'gee you can't even buy some of these anymore'," she said.