CCEP, a major regional Coca-Cola bottling partner, has threatened to withdraw from a major recycling program in Queensland, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
In most of Australia, a nationwide recycling program offers a 10-cent ($0.07) refund for properly recycled items — a scheme so successful that it enabled a man to save up for a down payment on a home.
Queensland's iteration of the national program, Containers for Change, hit a snag in late 2025 when 10 allegations of corrupt behavior related to the scheme were referred to the state's Crime and Corruption Commission, according to the Guardian.
The Queensland government noted that Containers for Change was developed and managed by an "industry-based, not-for-profit group" called CoEx. CoEx's two principal founding industry entities were Lion Australia, a beverage company, and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners.
ABC said that the details of the CCC complaint remained undisclosed, but the Guardian's earlier coverage excerpted a portion that claimed Queensland "effectively handed monopoly control of [Containers for Change] to two of Australia's largest beverage corporations."
Queensland's Liberal National Party proposed changes to Containers for Change and declined to recommend raising the 10-cent fee, prompting the Coca-Cola bottler to claim new "practical challenges" led CCEP to reassess its cooperation with the program.
According to ABC News, "The company stated its reputation was 'directly linked to the integrity' of the scheme."
Despite Coca-Cola's global efforts to be more sustainable, the company has fallen short of its environmental pledges and promises to use less plastic, a practice known as "greenwashing."
While the complaint referred to Queensland's corruption watchdog in 2025 wasn't made public, the excerpted portion made it sound as if whistleblowers considered a program administered by the very corporations being regulated incentivized policies friendlier to business than the planet.
In addition to the Coca-Cola bottler's threat to withdraw, the other industry partner, Lion, issued a statement claiming that changes to the program would result in higher prices for customers amid a cost-of-living crisis.
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"Any increase in scheme costs is ultimately borne by beverage companies and will flow through to consumers, and we remain deeply concerned by this given the cost environment businesses and consumers are currently facing," Lion warned.
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