Member Article

Could UK’s Bottle Deposit Scheme Reduce Large Scale Waste?

After UK’s bottle and can deposit return scheme was green lit by the Government in March, the first discussions regarding the sustainability of this measure are ensuing. Although prior to this measure £less than 50% of the 13 billion plastic bottles produced annually in the UK were being recycled, and similar DRS schemes in other countries have increased recycling rates up to 99%, there are voices saying that the implementation of this scheme in the UK could potentially be problematic.

Britain is already quite late in introducing a deposit return scheme for glass, metal and plastic containers, after efforts that spanned across one decade – 38 countries with higher recycling rates have already made plastic DRS a part of everyday life for their citizens and have reduced waste considerably. £Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden are just three positive examples.

Single-use plastic is one of Britain’s biggest waste issues

In addition to air pollution, which has been Britain’s major environmental issue for decades and £led to the Government being sued for the third time in early 2018, single-use plastic is another troubling concern, especially with the recent £Chinese ban on imports of plastic waste. Drinks are the most common type of plastic waste and the UK sells one million of them per minute. Less than 50% of these bottles are collected for recycling and only a minuscule 7% are turned into new bottles. All this waste is wreaking havoc on marine life, creating huge piles of floating debris that takes hundreds of years to degrade.

Sadiq Khan’s planned £network of London water fountains to reduce plastic waste was one step towards a recycling-friendly Britain, but the nationwide DRS is the larger scale measure that activists were waiting for. It’s good to see the government listen to public opinion. If the system is UK-wide, applicable to drinks containers of all sizes, and available everywhere they are sold, it will make a huge difference to the plastic problem – says Elena Polisano from Greenpeace UK.

But not all Britons share her optimism. The first implementation concerns have already started to appear, as retailers wonder who will pay for the return scheme and individuals wonder if this measure will be as effective in practice as it sounds in theory.

Who will pay for the scheme?

The first questions regarding Britain’s bottle deposit scheme were voiced by retailers, who are £concerned by the implementation costs. Retailers say that the costs for putting this plan into action could exceed £1 billion and that the broad outline provided by the Government doesn’t include enough details as to who will support these costs and how the system would work in practice.

The suggested bottle deposit scheme would allow the British to return metal and plastic cans to special recycling containers, no matter where they bought them, and receive in return a small incentive. The cans would then have to be recycled by retailers. Overall, British retailers were enthusiastic about this measure and expressed their willingness to work with the Government, but it’s still unclear who will support the implementation costs for the recycling containers.

In Germany, a similar deposit scheme initiative cost around £600 at launch and annual maintenance raised at £700 million.

Potential implementation issues could lead to reduced efficiency, say UK citizens

Overall, the Brits support the Government’s initiative of starting a bottle deposit scheme and they are aware of the undeniable benefits it would bring to the environment. However, cautious optimism is a better term for their reception. £According to a recent Guardian survey, UK citizens have some suggestions of their own as to how the system should work and how efficiency shortcomings should be addressed:

• Number of return points

Waste reduction through balers, compactors and dedicated recycling bins is already a reality of the UK’s corporate environment. £As reported by Mil-tek, British companies are generally efficient at recycling the waste they produce and keeping the workplace safe for their staff. However, this action would be more complex than commercial recycling and retailers could be overwhelmed by the huge number of bottles they would have to collect. According to British shoppers, it’s not enough for the average supermarket to have just one return point, because this could fill very quickly, as is the case with existing recycling bins.

• Incentives and penalties

The small cash incentive that people would receive from recycling plastic bottles and metal cans is not enough to encourage the Brits to recycle and reduce waste. Instead, they suggest, retailers should give back coupons or tokens that can be used in store. Or, some say, there should be penalties in place for people who do not recycle – something along the lines of the £littering fine, which increased in April to £150.

• Accessibility issues

Everyone should have access to these recycling stations and people shouldn’t have to carry bags of plastic and metal cans for long distances to reach the nearest drop-off point, say UK citizens. Moreover, they are worried that this measure could make recycling less convenient for people who pay extra to have recycling bins at home. In their opinion, rewards should be the same for everyone and the UK should have a consistent recycling strategy.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Cynthia Madison .