Michael Gove’s money back recycling plan will change all our lives
The Environment Secretary has signalled a brave new world in which we finally begin taking care of our seas and waste
WE have all been asked to show a bit of bottle in tackling the waste plastic mountain.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove yesterday signalled a brave new world by planning to turn BACK the clock and revive deposit return schemes for drink bottles. Shoppers will be asked to bring in used plastic and glass bottles, as well as aluminium cans, for cashback.
Good plan. Well done, everybody.
But it could mean paying up to 22p a pop more per drink, redeemable only once you track back to the shop and feed bottles and cans into a “reverse vending machine”.
Similar schemes are going great guns in Europe and beyond. In dutiful Norway, people recycle 97 per cent of their plastic bottles.
But will us Brits be up for this planet-saving faff?
It is a big ask. We currently recycle three in five of the 13billion plastic drink bottles we get through a year, plus 70 per cent of aluminium cans.
The rest are packed off to belching incinerator plants, dumped in landfill or left to pollute our green and pleasant land — or our seas.
Mr Gove wants us to do better. A lot better. He said: “We have already cut plastic bag use and now we want to take action on plastic bottles to clean up our oceans.”
His plans, due for consultation later this year, could be brought in as early as next spring and signal the end of the throwaway culture as we know it — for drinks containers, at least.
HOW IT WORKS
1. YOU pay a deposit of between 8p and 22p on drinks cans and bottles.
2. To get your money back, take the empties to a “reverse vending machine”.
3. It identifies the containers using their barcodes and tots up the total.
4. The machine prints a credit note for you to exchange for cash or spend in-store.
5. The cans and bottles are sorted by the machine and taken away for recycling.
6. If your items are not empty, you won’t get your money back.
He would have us radically change our habits. But we will not be alone. Around 20 countries are already doing their bit with similar schemes.
Mr Gove’s consultations will ask which of these varying schemes might work best for the UK.
The frontrunner so far is the Norwegian model. Since 1992, all producers and importers of drinks sold in cans or one-use bottles have been invited to voluntarily register for the national deposit scheme.
If they do not, a tax is placed on each bottle and can not recycled.
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When a shopper buys a drink in the scheme, they pay a “deposit” of 21p for a container bigger than half a litre, or 8p for a smaller one.
Once their contents have been gulped down, customers get their deposit back by putting their container in machines that can be found in most shops, kiosks and petrol stations.
The deposit comes back as a coupon to spend in the same store the customer bought their drink from. That is good news for corner-shop owners, driving up customer footfall.
Afterwards, the empty bottles are crushed, sorted, cleaned, dried and shredded into flakes to be formed into new containers. Cans are melted down and turned into fresh aluminium sheets. If all that sounds like a hassle, we used to do this all the time.
In the Sixties, shops routinely paid customers to return bottles before they were sent to the bottling firms for cleaning and reuse. Kids would collect littered bottles to earn pocket money — and homeless people did similar.
Plastic made this a thing of the past, as so few glass bottles were returned that the schemes became uneconomical.
But it could soon be possible to make serious cash by going through bins.
In America, “canners” root through garbage for discarded items that can be recycled. It can prove very lucrative.
SAVING THE EARTH: HOW IT WORKS IN OTHER COUNTRIES
SWEDEN
Recycling rate: 82.7 per cent
Has had plastic bottle deposit schemes since 1994. Any firm serving or importing drinks must be part of an approved scheme.
GERMANY
Recycling rate: 98%
Germans have returned plastic bottles for cash since 1991 and an official deposit system started in 2003. Reverse vending in supermarkets gives receipts to exchange for cash. A crate of empty beer bottles pays £1.30.
CANADA
Best recycling rate (Saskatchewan): 82.3%
All but one of Canada’s 13 provinces play ball. The folk of Saskatchewan are keenest – mabye because they get a handy 18p for every bottle over half a litre they bring back.
AMERICA
Best recycling (Michigan): 93%
Ten US states have schemes and
Michigan has the best return rate – but also one of the highest deposit charges at 7p per bottle.
AUSTRALIA
Best recycling (South Australia): 70.5%
South Australia has been on it since 1977 and other parts are following. Northern Territories and New South Wales will be followed by Western Australia and Queensland. Low deposits of 4p to 6p don’t help take-up.
In New York, Conrad Cutler, 26, rakes in ten million dollars a YEAR with his business collecting cans and bottles.
If you lack the stomach to root through bins, you may be pleased to know Mr Gove’s plans could save your local council some money.
They spend millions a year clearing rubbish from our streets and hedges, with drinks containers the top scourge.
Pollsters reckon Brits have it in them to answer Mr Gove’s call.
A YouGov survey found 74 per cent of us would return drink containers for the promise of 10p — while the 5p plastic bag tax has led to an 85 per cent drop in the number used.
Tesco has backed the idea of a deposit return scheme and Iceland recently said it would go plastic-free on its own products.
Emma Bridgewater, president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: “This is the breakthrough we have been waiting for. We have been campaigning for a deposit return scheme for almost ten years. This victory is an enormous leap forward.
“Our countryside, oceans and wildlife have long been victims of our obsession with single-use bottles and cans. Many end up damaging our environments and killing wildlife. They are a shocking waste of valuable materials.”
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