No. I'm suggesting that the UK doesn't have a culture of recycling plastic bottles (or much else) and the countries you refer to do. I'm also suggesting that a bottle deposit scheme will have little or no effect on that and that there are more effective ways to spend the money that would be spent on bottle deposit schemes.
It's normal in the UK to unthinkingly drop rubbish on the street even when there's a bin a couple of metres away. We have much bigger problems than people not hauling bags of empty plastic bottles to wherever the nearest recycling facility would be.
Well you basically are saying that then
But you’re right, the UK doesn’t have the same recycling culture of other countries. Why is that?
We know from experience in other schemes* that one way of changing habits is to hit people in the wallet. Schemes such as a bottle deposit and plastic bag charge are relatively minor costs if people do what they are supposed to (return the bottle for a refund or reuse bags), but force people to change their habits, even though the individual cost is relatively low (an extra 40p on a £100 shopping trip seems small, but it’s worked).
One step at a time. We can’t change everything instantly but small cumulative changes can build up over time.
* as an example since the charge on disposable plastic bags came in usage has dropped by 85%
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.the...drops-85-per-cent-since-5p-charged-introduced
Monetary cost always matters. If you spend something on one thing, you don't have it to spend on another thing. So whatever you use to measure success, you should take into account how much success you're getting for the money you're spending. If, for example, spending £500M a year on bottle deposit schemes does little or nothing to reduce the impact of plastics on the environment, that's a waste of £500M that could be spent on something useful, including something that would do more to reduce the impact of plastics on the environment. Subsidising biodegradable drinking straws, maybe.
Ok, fair point. But let’s not forget we are already paying for this in other ways. Picking up, transporting and then sorting bottles from other recycling already happens. That costs councils money and could offset part of the cost of the deposit scheme depending on how it was run.
An example of a country/area that has brought a similar scheme in relatively recently would be useful to really get an idea of the change in recycling rates.
As an example of one way of funding this sort of scheme I’ll use the Canadian system. The cost/systems of administration are different depending on province but are broadly the same. The cost is levied on the customer to the tune of around 0-3p per can or smaller plastic bottle. In addition non returned deposits are used. Some provinces also take part of that pot and put it towards other recycling initiatives.
Apparently it’s different in other countries, where the cost is passed directly to the manufacturer (but probably still trickles down to the consumer).
For those of us that do recycle it’s probably going to make little difference, but to those that don’t (a significant proportion of the Uk population) it will almost certainly change their habits.
EDIT:
Lots more info on the Canadian system here:
http://www.cmconsultinginc.com/wp-c...NG-BEVERAGE-CONTAINER-REUSE-AND-RECYCLING.pdf
And some interesting tidbits, for example.
The effect of deposit level on a consumer’s incentive to recycle is clear when one considers the province of Alberta. In 2008, Alberta raised its 5- and 20-cent deposits to 10-cents and 25-cents, respectively. After only four years, collection rates for the three largest beverage container categories increased by approximately 7-percentage points. Rates for aluminum cans have increased from 80% to 88%, PET from 70% to 76%, and non-refillable glass from 86% to 90%.
Which seems to suggest that the system works, not just that there's a culture of recycling. People deposit more when charges go up.
There's also a chart close to the bottom that splits out how much a non recycling and a recycling consumer pays for the entire system. Where I am it's less than a penny a container. whereas in other areas it's more, but generally related to the fact it's paying for other recycling initiatives. The deposit scheme seems to be part of an effort to remove the cost of recycling away from local government and onto the manufacturers, distributors and ultimately customers which in theory means less council tax.
It would be interesting to see how the other systems work and their costs. Maybe our German residents could find that information.
(If this does happen you'd get less back than the extra you pay.)