It has been 40 years since South Australia's container deposit scheme came into effect.

The scheme, the first of its kind in Australia, offers a 10 cent refund for people depositing bottles or cans for recycling.

Legislation was introduced by the Dunstan state government in 1975, before coming into effect in 1977.

South Australia was the only state or territory with such a scheme for 35 years until the Northern Territory introduced one in 2012.

New South Wales and Western Australia have introduced similar schemes and Queenslanders will be able to collect cash for returning bottles and cans from mid-2018.

In 2006, South Australia's scheme was declared a heritage icon by the National Trust of South Australia.

Sustainability Minister Ian Hunter said the initiative had accelerated recycling rates.

"We've got the lowest percentage of drink containers in our litter scheme of the whole country, I think it's about 2.9 per cent and we're recycling and diverting from landfill about 80 per cent of our waste right across the board," Mr Hunter said.

"So South Australians have really embraced this legislation, I think it's the only piece of legislation, or the only law that's been declared a heritage icon."

About 580 million drink containers are recycled in the state every year.

The Government said the state's waste and recycling sector employs almost 5,000 South Australians.