Gove considering plastic bottle deposit scheme

Being the UK someone will scam this and make their own fake bottles to claim back more money.

Also would the extra energy consumption be worth the extra plastic collection? Just because it ticks some boxes doesn't mean the results will be better for the environment. 1,000's of machines being on, extra collections. Cash handling(unless they will be card only) all has an impact.

I suppose the collections could be resolved by forcing goods suppliers to handle them on drop off of the store's goods. Let's say a firm makes a delivery to Corner Shop A, now they have to collect the bottles at the same time and return them to base.
 
Finland do this, and on cans.
I was about to put a coke bottle in a bin at a bus stop and my friend was like wtf.....

He said if you don't want money back then leave it on top of the bin:confused:

2 minutes later while waiting for a bus a guy came over and put it in his bag.
Recycling and keeping the streets clean at the same time - genius.
 
Suppose it's better what than I currently do with my plastic bottles, chip them into tiny pieces and scatter them into the river for the local fauna to eat.
 
We were. I remember as a young lad me and a couple of mates would regularly go 'on the hunt' for glass bottles that had been discarded and we would hand back in to the local shop for the 10p or whatever it was on each bottle we got.
Used to be a nice little booster to our pocket money!!

Edit:


Exactly. If, for arguments sake, we gathered up a quids worth of bottles we almost always spent it on sweets in the shop where we'd just 'cashed in'
Brilliantly simple system.

Then the plastic 'explosion' happened.
You mean you stole people's milk from their doorsteps in dawn raids with your mates.
 
It just shows how backwards the UK is if they are only just thinking of doing this when it is common practice in msot other developed countries.


one fo the additional benefits of having such deposits is the homeless and needy go out and collect all the bottles from parks and streets etc. so effectively they get paid to keep things clean and in exchange they earn enough for a happy meal etc. Here in the US you often see the poor wait at the recyling point so you can just givem them your bags of bottles and not faff about trying to get you $1.15 back.
 
if its collection then its ok.

if it's not its basically punishing those who don't drive busy increasing the cost of the product for a deposit they will never claim.
If they made the way to a supermarket to buy filled bottles and made it home then they can surely make a return visit with empty bottles.
 
Weren't we doing this thirty years ago with glass bottles?

Yes, and before then. I remember doing some scavenging trips when I was a boy. Roaming around town usually got me some empty bottles I could trade for caps at traders :)

It's a different setting though, and this time I'm not making a joking reference to Fallout. When I was a boy, it was normal for children to be out around town on their own and 5p per bottle was a worthwhile amount of money to us. You could get sweets at 4 for 1p back then. As much as £1 could be made on a very good day scavenging bottles and that was a significant amount of money to a child. IIRC, when I was ~7 my pocket money was 50p a week. The situation just isn't the same nowadays. Children usually aren't allowed anywhere near as much freedom as they had back then and the return on labour involved would be far less appealing anyway.

It's also not very appealing in terms of cost or environmental impact nowadays. It's more of a vote-attracting scheme. They mention that it has been successful in some places, but not how they measure success nor that it's not done in most places.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/01/bottle-deposit-scheme-costly-counterproductive
 
It's pretty embarrassing that this and the bag charge have only recently been realistically considered. We're laughably behind when it comes to recycling, hopefully this doesn't take too long to push through.
 
It's pretty embarrassing that this and the bag charge have only recently been realistically considered. We're laughably behind when it comes to recycling, hopefully this doesn't take too long to push through.
Again, going back to the 70s and 80s, all shop used to charge for carrier bags. I remember when the first supermarket stopped charging for them, it was a big deal and it didn't take long for the rest of them to follow suit.
 
They had that when I lived in Finland. It led to the students collecting loads to fund parties etc :p. There were machines in shops where you could feed in the cans/bottles, then at the end it'd give you a receipt which acted as a coupon you could use at the end of your shop. Fairly fuss free.
Yep, was gonna say that. I remember doing it on holiday. They still do it. Same in Denmark I think.
 
It's a awful idea. I was hacked off when the SNP announced last month that they were looking at forcing this on us. All of our plastic bottles, packaging etc goes into our recycle bins (we have 4 wheely bins, 1 for paper/cardboard, 1 for plastic/tins, 1 for garden waste, 1 for landfill and a plastic crate for glass) so we would be losing out or have to take all of out plastic bottles into town and presumeably queue up at a supermarket to get our money back. Then again, where are the shops going to store all of these plastic bottles? It's a terrible idea and recycling should be done in the home or if out and about and you buy a bottle of drink the council should provide recyling bins in the town centre to dispose of them.
 
It's also not very appealing in terms of cost or environmental impact nowadays. It's more of a vote-attracting scheme. They mention that it has been successful in some places, but not how they measure success nor that it's not done in most places.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/01/bottle-deposit-scheme-costly-counterproductive

Cost is a question. Where is the cost going to come from for dealing with the recycling? If that letter is correct then the councils could very well administer the scheme, continuing the apparent profit they make on the bottles.

As I mentioned in my OP, countries that use deposit schemes are in the high 80s% and 90s% recycling range for plastic bottles, whereas the UK is currently just over 50%. If the schemes don’t work then are we just suggesting that Brits are just filthy people as a whole? :p

I’d argue that’s generally how the success is measured. Bottles in vs bottles out. The more bottles in the less plastic left to disintegrate in our seas, countryside and landfills (assuming no increase in plastic production due to deposit schemes, which I can’t see as a likely result).

The idea of these schemes is not monetary cost IMO, rather a way of reducing the impact of plastics on the environment. An impact which, as is becoming more apparent by the week, we have severely underestimated.
 
What we need is retina-scan general waste and recycling bins that can only be used by the home occupants* and then penalise those that put recyclable material in the general waste bin. ;)

* To prevent vindictive people contaminating your wheelie bins that mean you get a fine.
 
It just shows how backwards the UK is if they are only just thinking of doing this when it is common practice in msot other developed countries.


one fo the additional benefits of having such deposits is the homeless and needy go out and collect all the bottles from parks and streets etc. so effectively they get paid to keep things clean and in exchange they earn enough for a happy meal etc. Here in the US you often see the poor wait at the recyling point so you can just givem them your bags of bottles and not faff about trying to get you $1.15 back.

This.

More needs to be done overall.
 
Just looking on Wikipedia it seems there was a poll done for the Scottish proposal and it got overwhelming support. Any chance of a poll on this thread to see what the support rate would be here?
 
I would be happy to recycle at home as it currently is and fines for people that repeatedly fail to bother
 
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