SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER: Each year, Australians throw away an estimated seven billion cans and bottles which end up as litter or landfill. In a few weeks' time, Environment ministers are due to decide whether to introduce a national deposit scheme for drink containers to ensure this waste is recycled.

Schemes already exist in South Australia and the Northern Territory, but industry, and in particular Coca-Cola, is fiercely resisting a national scheme and recently Coke has secured a surprising partner in opposing container deposits, the organisation Keep Australia Beautiful. Matt Peacock reports.

MATT PEACOCK, REPORTER: Coming soon to a hundred 7-11 stores in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, reverse vending machines that recycle empty drink containers, returning a voucher to spend for every container that's crushed.

JEFF ANGEL, CONVENOR, BOOMERANG ALLIANCE: Australia consumes about 14 to 15 billion drink containers a year. About half of those are recycled. The rest are either littered or landfilled. That's an enormous waste of resources.

MATT PEACOCK: Vending machines are just one part of a proposed national deposit scheme for drink containers proposed by an alliance of major environment groups.

JEFF ANGEL: The vast majority of the community support a 10-cent refundable deposit on drink containers. It is spectacularly popular.

GARY DAWSON, CEO, AUST. FOOD & GROCERY COUNCIL: It's expensive, it's inconvenient and it's unnecessary.

MATT PEACOCK: Industry is bitterly opposed and last year the big bottlers, Coca-Cola, Lyon Nathan and Schweppes, temporarily froze a similar Northern Territory scheme with a successful Federal Court challenge. It sparked angry words from Clean Up Australia's founder outside Coca-Cola's Sydney headquarters.

IAN KIERNAN, FOUNDER, CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA (2013): It was legislated for. And now we have a multinational that is trying to overturn our democratic process. Say no to the product.

MATT PEACOCK: In South Australia for more than 30 years consumers have paid and claimed deposits on their drink containers. But for the past decade the packaging industry has been fighting against a national scheme.

GARY DAWSON: 77 per cent of Victorians said they'd be unlikely to claim the deposits and it's no wonder why. You got to hang onto your empties, you got to drive to a depot to claim back 10 cents per container to get $2 or $3 back per week. Well you spend more than that on petrol.

JEFF ANGEL: People want it. They've heard the industry allegations about inconvenience, about it being a tax, about it being expensive, about the alternatives that industry have put up, mainly sponsored by Coca-Cola, and the public have said, "We don't believe you."

MATT PEACOCK: The Food and Grocery Council argues more recycling bins are the solution that deal with other litter too.

GARY DAWSON: There's a whole heap of other litter out there. Industry-wide initiatives have targeted litter and packaging in the broader sense across the whole waste stream.

MATT PEACOCK: To the surprise of other environmental groups, the national office of the popular Keep Australia Beautiful organisation backs the industry position.

ROB THOMAS, KEEP AUSTRALIAN BEAUTIFUL NAT. ASSOC.: What we believe is that there are more appropriate strategies to adopt that cover holistic litter reduction rather than one approach, which is the container deposit legislation that's currently been discussed.

JEFF ANGEL: I really did think that Keep Australia Beautiful had a good role to play in the environmental movement. But when you look at how far they've gone onto Coke's arguments, you really have to question the integrity and their continuing credibility. The fact is that KAB gets 88 per cent of its money from companies, the bulk of which are packaging companies.

MATT PEACOCK: Behind the scenes, Keep Australia Beautiful has united with Coca-Cola trying to persuade parliamentarians like Bruce Notley-Smith not to support a national scheme.

BRUCE NOTLEY-SMITH, NSW LIBERAL MP FOR COOGEE: It was a bit of an eye-opener, seeing a large corporation and Keep Australia Beautiful, who I think we think of in philanthropic terms, being in bed together.

MATT PEACOCK: Were you shocked?

BRUCE NOTLEY-SMITH: I perhaps been in politics long enough never to be shocked.

MATT PEACOCK: But did you ask Keep Australia Beautiful what they were doing?

BRUCE NOTLEY-SMITH: Well I could see that obviously Coke is a big sponsor of Keep Australia Beautiful.

ROB THOMAS: We actually don't get any income directly from Coca-Cola per se. This is a Coke - there is a Coke trust where it's a general trust to be used in a number of different ways. So we get income through there and we get income through Coca-Cola Amatil, but the income isn't to pay administrative costs, it's not to support a lavish lifestyle of Keep Australia Beautiful; what it is is to roll out programs in communities, to make community change and to impact positively the litter stream around Australia.

MATT PEACOCK: And would that be more than half your income, say?

ROB THOMAS: It's approximately a third of the income.

MEL HAL, CHAIRMAN, KEEP AUSTRALIA BEAUTIFUL WA: Our position has always been that we support a container deposit legislation and our national association is aware of our position.

MATT PEACOCK: Keep Australia Beautiful's Western Australian branch, a strong supporter of a deposit scheme, finds itself embarrassed within the environmental movement by its national office.

MEL HAL: Yes, it does tarnish the name in that regard because those people see us not supporting container deposit legislation. But I can only reiterate that Western Australia is not in that position.

MATT PEACOCK: On Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach, the litter stream appears to be never-ending.

JUSTIN BONSEY, RESPONSIBLE RUNNERS: In a year, we estimate that 25,000 to 30,000 bottles and cans are littered on this beach alone, which is absolutely shocking. And when you look at the numbers across the country, we know that eight billion are landfilled or littered every year, which comes down to 15,000 a minute.

MATT PEACOCK: These volunteers are ardent supporters of a national deposit scheme.

JUSTIN BONSEY: It really is a no-brainer. I think a lot of us grew up just making a little extra money on the side picking up these things and really it was incentivising to us do the right thing. 'Cause the environment certainly doesn't deserve all of this.

MATT PEACOCK: State, territory and federal ministers plan to meet within weeks to consider a national approach, but if the industry campaign succeeds, then more states are still likely to go it alone.

JEFF ANGEL: Tasmania is looking at it seriously. Victoria is looking at it very, very seriously. Western Australia is a natural part of the South Australia-Northern Territory precinct for a container deposit area. And if that's what industry wants, 'cause we're not going to stop campaigning, then they will be faced with multiple state schemes. We'd all prefer a national scheme, but that's not going to stop us and the public calling for a container deposit system.

SARAH FERGUSON: Matt Peacock with that report from my local beach at Bondi.