Drink container photo comp: can MPs do that?

It's Monday morning, the week before the big container deposit debate (I hope), so it's all a bit serious in the office.

But not serious enough to prevent us coming up with the idea of a photo competition on the 10c deposit facebook site whereby people send pictures of littered bottles, cans and cartons "in the wild", and the winner gets a beanbag.  As always, we come up with these ideas, look at each other and say "can MPs do that?!". 

 The idea is to highlight the fact that we don't see littered drink containers any more, because we filter them out.  People from South Australia and places in Europe and USA where they have drink container deposits, often comment on the amount of litter in Victoria.  They can see it.

This is something we talked about when Wayne Heywood, the brilliant designer of Turning Rubbish Into Community Money ran around Melbourne one afternoon snapping pictures of rubbish next to recycling bins, for the report. 

A photo takes the filters off your eyes, so you can see the rubbish.  He snapped a coke bottle next to the steps of the State Library. A half crushed can by the town hall.  A lemon drink in front of a recycling bin.  An overflowing street bin (above), where drink bottles and cans spill over the edge, balanced on banana peel and a crumpled paper bag. You look at that picture and think to yourself: that bin would be fine if those drinks had a 10c deposit.

If the answer to the question "can MPs do that?" turns out to be yes, the competition will be held here, on the 10c deposit facebook page.  Get your happy snap camera out, and take the filters off your eyes!