After the starting date of January 3 stalled for a week, residents are now covering retailer price hikes to recover costs.

The system which promises to refund 10c per eligible can to increase recycling and community money pools has prompted a political slinging match.

The Country Liberals withdrew support earlier this month for what it’s calling a “disastrously executed” scheme.

Nevertheless, MT Bins will soon begin operating alongside one of the scheme’s coordinators, Envirobank, as local collection depots in Katherine.

It is coming on board after previously halting then finalising negotiated contracts with coordinators last week.

MT Bins owner Michael Knight said things hadn’t been as clear-cut as first declared.

He said early on, he and other approved depots from Darwin to Alice Springs signed on with the understanding the scheme would mirror that of South Australia which has been running for 30 years.

But when it came down to the crunch, he said, business deals with suppliers gummed up the flow of operations.

“How it works in South Australia, is all sales people know how many containers they sell in areas, so they ratio it down to all collection points and share it out,” Mr Knight said.

“But what happened in the NT, production coming to collection depots is now being sorted by brand.”

Repercussions are already being felt, with some retailers raising prices as a way to offset the refund.

Katherine rubbish warrior Jenny Duggan said she had heard of beer cartons soaring an extra $6, and Mr Knight said even schooners had risen in price, despite not coming under container classification.

“Places are increasing by pretty unreasonable amounts; they’re not just covering costs, they’re making a price out of it, too,” he said.

However, he said cost recovery was more detailed than people thought.

He explained collection depots added on a handling fee, which was passed on to coordinators, who then sent off to the recycler after adding on a cut.