People could get money for recycling drink bottles and cans if an idea from Palmerston North gets backing.

Deposit and refund schemes to encourage consumers to recycle glass, aluminium and plastic drink containers are being advocated by the Palmerston North City Council.

The council on Tuesday voted to promote a remit to Local Government New Zealand asking the Government to develop and implement a scheme.

An estimated half of the 2.23 billion beverage containers bought in New Zealand each year ended up in landfills or being disposed of in ways other than by recycling.

READ MORE: Palmerston North mayor says Government has it wrong about the plastic bag problem

Cr Adrian Broad said he remembered the days when bottle drives were "a good little earner" for children, and it would be good to see their return.

The move comes despite Palmerston North's advocacy last year for the Government to introduce a levy on single-use plastic bags, which Environment Minister Nick Smith refused to act on.

Cr Chris Teo-Sherrell proposed the remit, which would ask the Government to support a national beverage container deposit system that industry would have to put into practice within two years. "These containers are a large-volume product, and it would have broad public support."

Strategy and policy manager Julie Macdonald said under the Waste Minimisation Act, the Minister for the Environment could declare the containers to be priority products.

That would make it mandatory to manage them through a product stewardship programme.

It would also be the first time the minister had used that power.

Cr Aleisha​ Rutherford said the proposal would be a good step toward increasing recycling and improving the environment.

"If we do get this, it would change the economy. It creates jobs in recycling, and puts money back into the community, and people would pick up any cans that are left lying around."

Mayor Grant Smith said the proposed remit had his full support, and he believed it was something that would be easy to do.

He said it would discourage people from leaving broken glass bottles around the streets.

"If those bottles were valuable, they would not be broken."

Environment and economic sustainability group Envision New Zealand says beverage container recycling rates in New Zealand are persistently low, and that voluntary recycling is not working.

The group estimates at least 45,865 tonnes of them, the equivalent of 700 full Boeing 747 aeroplanes, are discarded as litter, ending up in waterways and landfills each year.

It advocates a mandatory container deposit system that would provide a strong financial incentive, suggested at 10 cents, for customers to return beverage containers.

It suggests the measures could lift the recycling rate from the current 40 per cent to a goal of 85 per cent.

The council's remit will be referred to the Local Government New Zealand metro meeting as a first step to gauge support from other councils.