Gove considering plastic bottle deposit scheme

[Tefal]

Unless you just take a carrier bag of bottles to a cornershop and feed them into a machine. Given it would be fairly normal to recycle bottles/cans in that way, it's not as though they'd be awful stigma attached to it.

I have no corner shop and I csnt really see them having a machine anyway.

closest would be Aldi at 0.8 miles.

I'm not talking about a stigma in talking about it just not being practicle when the council comes onfe a week to collect them.

but the price of the goods will go up to account for the deposit.

so I'll be paying more for no reason

why not have the recycling truck weigh the bottles of each house and issue a council tax rebate or a payment receipt.

taking stuff to a shop seems a stupid step bsck whem we have weekly recycling collections come to our houses

 

[Tefal]

When I lived in Finland the cornershop next to where I lived had one. Loads of places did. They're not that big.

Yes, stuff was more expensive because of the deposit, but it meant people bothered to recycle - it won't improve the outcomes in terms of people who already recycle, but it will improve them when it comes to all the people who don't bother. It's not aimed at the former... it's aimed at the latter.

It's not practical for people to drop them off at a shop, but it is practical for recycling trucks to weigh the bottle/can waste from every house on their route? But anyway, as mentioned above there are other solutions like getting deliveries and then when they deliver your next supermarket order they take away the bottles/cans from the last one and give you the money back etc etc.

no there is no corner shop moses, it's a mile and a half round trip to the nearest shop


and by practicle I mean for me the consumer.

if it takes the trucker slightly longer on each stop thats not affecting me or anyone else who doesn't drive

a super market is never going to pick up bottles though.

I mean who would want thier fresh produce delivered by a litteraly garbage truck?

It's not aimed at the former... it's aimed at the latter.

but it punishes the former thus turning them into the latter

 

[Amp34]

Plastic bottles and cans make the council money, they are almost certainly the most profitable part of the collection and you want to take that away. The council will still have to do collections for all the other recycling so there won't be any savings. Just a loss of the most valuable part of the collection.

What they should do is charge people that don't recycle more.

But as part of an integrated recycling solution (for example something like the models used by certain Canadian provinces) the Council still gets that money to use, just in a different way, with a higher amount of recycling.

 

[Amp34]

oh yeah I'm sure there's nothing more housewives would like to deal with than run a gauntlet of drunk homeless people demanding thier recycling from them or thier kids.

and given this scheme would likley be accompanied with the council stopping the weekly recycling collection over all recycling would drop as people start lobbing it in thier black bin because they dont want the hassle

Except that’s not what happens here, at all, and it’s unlikely to happen in the UK either.

And no, why would the council stop recycling collection because bottles are recycled elsewhere? They’re only a small proportion of overall recycled material.

Again I’ll use the example from here, we have a black bin for general rubbish, a blue bin for recyclables and a green bin for compostables as well as the deposit scheme. You can dump your deposit worthy bottles in the blue one if you want, you just don’t get your deposit back. I’m pretty sure that’s the same as most other countries that have deposit schemes.

 

[Amp34]

No I wouldn't. Why should I go out of my way to cart rubbish around when the council can't even be bothered to do the job they're paid to do?

Because, you know, you can do things for yourself rather than expect everyone else to do it for you.

As much a the council should have provided you with a recycling bin you’re the prime person this sort of scheme is aimed at. Someone that doesn’t bother unless it’s right in front of you.

If you knew you were going to get 20p back for every bottle I’m sure you’d suddenly find a way of recycling them.

 

[Tefal]

this isnt a reward for people tsking back bottles its a fine for people who use the council recycling.

and I told you I get stuff like that delivered like a lot of people wothou cars.

or a pick things up after work, I dont want to take a bag of garbage to work with me each day.

Why wouldn't they? They come to your door with your stuff and take the trays back with your old bottles in and put them in the space which has just been freed up in the van, or have different clean/dirty sections/etc.

because people don't want thier fresh food put in a garbage truck. dirty clean sections means youve just halves your trucks capacity too.

Taking slightly longer at each stop leads to the route taking significantly longer... which leads to them needing a greater number of trucks/staff, or having less frequent collections.

or you know a load sensor on the lifting arm.

instead you propose to invonenence everyone


also you're all living in a rather cutesy middle class world where kids are collecting bottles for sweets


addicts are going to raid everyones recycling bins, why wander about town when there's a street full of hundreds because they dont want to spend the weekend shutting themselves as they go through withdrawl

 

[Tefal]

Except that’s not what happens here, at all, and it’s unlikely to happen in the UK either.

And no, why would the council stop recycling collection because bottles are recycled elsewhere? They’re only a small proportion of overall recycled material.

Again I’ll use the example from here, we have a black bin for general rubbish, a blue bin for recyclables and a green bin for compostables as well as the deposit scheme. You can dump your deposit worthy bottles in the blue one if you want, you just don’t get your deposit back. I’m pretty sure that’s the same as most other countries that have deposit schemes.

so basically your proposing an additional tax for those using thier blue bin.

can I get a rebate then?

 

[Amp34]

If that's the way you're thinking then it's more a tax on those that can't be bothered do what's requested, or perhaps a charge for people that are too lazy to take stuff back to the store.

It's also a tax on the (potentially) ~50% of people that don't recycle their plastic bottles currently. That's the main reason it's being considered.

 

[Efour]

Supermarket delivery people already take back recycling plastic bags.
So for the 0.01% of you doom sayers that literally seem to loath everything these days, I'm sure they can come to an arrangement their too.
As for the 99,% you guys will cope fine.

Yes it's a. 10p "tax" on a can of pop or beer.
Yes deal with it.
Do you guys still have nightmares about buying carrier bags?

You basically have no say in it anyway because you live in a democracy

 

[Azza]

I don't really need a monetary incentive to recycle to be honest.

Everyone has a recycling bin, if you're going to the effort to separate a plastic bottle or 5 for 5p then surely you should be able to do it while you're at home for nothing. Plus your other recycling is still going to get collected and given to the local Veolia or who ever the contract is with in your area.

 

[edscdk]

I think it would be a great idea

 

[Orionaut]

Yup. My parents used to do it. I'd often take them back for them. It's a win for everyone as bottles get recycled, we produce less waste and the shop gets more footfall.

Typically they were not recycled, they were reused. There is a massive difference...

The whole thing broke down once recycling became the norm because the main economic advantage was lost.

 

[MookJong]

I have used these bottle machines in small towns in Germany and Austria. However in these places I did not see recycling bin collections and these were low population areas. So it made perfect sense.

I place everything that is recyclable in my recycle bin. I can't drive for medical reasons, why would I want to save up bottles to take to the supermarket and queue up to dispose of them? Why OcUK?

 

[MikeTheNative]

If that's the way you're thinking then it's more a tax on those that can't be bothered do what's requested, or perhaps a charge for people that are too lazy to take stuff back to the store.

It's also a tax on the (potentially) ~50% of people that don't recycle their plastic bottles currently. That's the main reason it's being considered.

Where I live we already had recycle bags for plastic and metal tins collected every week. So i'd lose out while still recycling.

 

[Semple]

When I moved into my first student flat the previous occupants had left behind roughly 200 empty glass Irn Bru bottles.

Took them all back to the shop across the road over the course of a few weeks and paid for several beers with the profits!

That said I think standardising and increasing the availability of at home recycling should be the focus rather than paying people to return bottles...

/Salsa

My flatmate in first year of uni had an addiction to cheap cola, the one that Tesco used to sell for three 2 litre bottles for a quid. He would go through at least one bottle a day, rather than throwing them out he used to line the wall of his room with them. Not kidding by the end of the year there were hundreds of the things. Took him forever to squash them down to dump in the bin.

Personally i think it's a great idea, it's the same system as the "plastic bag tax". If you're too lazy or forgetful of bringing your own bag then you have to pay for it. If you're happy to keep throwing bottles into the bin then you pay a premium for it.

Might also encourage youngsters to go on the hunt for plastic bottles to turn into money.

 

[a1ex2001]

My flatmate in first year of uni had an addiction to cheap cola, the one that Tesco used to sell for three 2 litre bottles for a quid. He would go through at least one bottle a day, rather than throwing them out he used to line the wall of his room with them. Not kidding by the end of the year there were hundreds of the things. Took him forever to squash them down to dump in the bin.

Personally i think it's a great idea, it's the same system as the "plastic bag tax". If you're too lazy or forgetful of bringing your own bag then you have to pay for it. If you're happy to keep throwing bottles into the bin then you pay a premium for it.

Might also encourage youngsters to go on the hunt for plastic bottles to turn into money.

It's nothing like the plastic bag charge which is easily avoided by on the rare occasions I go to a shop taking a bag with me, this charge is unavoidable for people who shop from home (The numbers are increasing fast) and will necessitate extra polluting journeys to the shops so I can get my money back. It is more headline grabbing deflection from the real issues by the Tories master of such things. Before long he will re-open the mines and the mills 'because they were great for poor people when I were a lad'

 

[MookJong]

it's the same system as the "plastic bag tax".

If it's the same system as the plastic bag tax why am I completely in favour of the plastic bag tax and not this?

 

[Glaucus]

It's nothing like the plastic bag charge which is easily avoided by on the rare occasions I go to a shop taking a bag with me, this charge is unavoidable for people who shop from home (The numbers are increasing fast) and will necessitate extra polluting journeys to the shops so I can get my money back. It is more headline grabbing deflection from the real issues by the Tories master of such things. Before long he will re-open the mines and the mills 'because they were great for poor people when I were a lad'

or you know they can take the bottles back and take the amount of the bill, just like ocado do for bags.

just recycling through cancel obviously doesn't work as the stats show and the stats from countries which have a tax scheme does work.

 

[Kronos]

Surely the biggest plastic environmental hazard are the microbeads which are in face soaps, body washes, and even toothpastes. They are sometimes included in “age-defying” makeup (yes, filling in wrinkles with plastic dust!), as well as lip gloss and nail polish. Most wastewater treatment doesn’t filter out microbeads, and they get discharged into waterways. As a result, micro-plastic particles are found in bays, gulfs and seas worldwide, as well as inland waterways.
So although on paper this proposal from Gove sounds good it really is a drop in the ocean, excuse the pun, and will not address the real issues.

 

[a1ex2001]

or you know they can take the bottles back and take the amount of the bill, just like ocado do for bags.

just recycling through cancel obviously doesn't work as the stats show and the stats from countries which have a tax scheme does work.

That's assuming the super markets have the van capacity to take dirty bottles back to the store that will need to be segregated from all fresh produce, there will be an extra cost to them either way for processing the bottles which they will pass on to us and will we see a reduction in the cost of council tax as they are no longer taking these plastic bottles? I doubt it!

It is an old fashion solution from and old fashioned government.