Do people think deposit return schemes will reduce plastic?

LoveOurPlanet

Single-use plastic is a hot topic at the moment, and the government have announced they're considering introducing a deposit-return scheme to England to help combat this issue.

My question is, do you think people will return their used plastic bottles to the supermarket, or wherever these initiatives are set up just to save 20p... and the environment?

GreatApe

LoveOurPlanet wrote: »

Single-use plastic is a hot topic at the moment, and the government have announced they're considering introducing a deposit-return scheme to England to help combat this issue.

My question is, do you think people will return their used plastic bottles to the supermarket, or wherever these initiatives are set up just to save 20p... and the environment?

yes it will reduce plastic because poor people go around collecting said bottles from bins and streets

but on the other hand sometimes these very same people will rip open a bin bag to collect a couple of plastic bottles and leave the street in a mess with the contents of said bin bag

Also some silly people will drive 5 miles to the supermarket to return their 20 gram bottles of plastic and in the process burn 1000 grams of petrol

Overall I dont think it is a positive way to go about it

If plastic is such a big issue then ban it and manufacturers can instead use aluminum or glass but then aluminium & glass cost more energy to make and broken glass is much more of a hazard and problem than a plastic bottle thrown on the street

at this stage it is better to concentrate on building out offshore wind farms and interconnectors imo

maybe Add a 10p tax surcharge to all plastic and glass and aluminum and paper drinks sold in supermarkets and fast food joints and coffee shops and use it to fund more offshore wind maybe later even extend it to all packaging for all food sold in supermarkets. or perhaps have a packaging tax based on weight, that way packets will get smaller and the supermarkets and food brands will stop making huge boxes and only filling in 1/3rd of the box with actual food and it will discourage multiple layers of packaging just for aesthetic reasons

JKenH

LoveOurPlanet wrote: »

My question is, do you think people will return their used plastic bottles to the supermarket, or wherever these initiatives are set up just to save 20p... and the environment?

It would be great if such a scheme would work with kids collecting bottles to raise money for good causes or us having charity bottle banks. The problem though is you will never reach the type of people who are responsible for littering our roadsides with plastic bottles and MacDonalds cartons.

When I challenged a group of teenagers who, having eaten their takeaway, packaged their rubbish up neatly into a carrier bag and dropped it out their car window, all I got was abuse and the threat of being reported to the police as a !!!!!phile!

It is a small minority of people who carelessly and recklessly discard their waste. We have to educate (brainwash) kids from an early age that littering has consequences.

Why should you not just throw food containers out of a car window or discard them as you walk along?

We learn our behaviour from our parents, teachers and peers. It is a society problem not a financial one.

NigeWick

JKenH wrote: »

Why should you not just throw food containers out of a car window or discard them as you walk along?

Depositing litter in a public place is an offence but there aren't enough uninformed police on duty to deal with what goes on these days.

Katiehound

Gosh, a deposit on a glass bottle!
Nothing new there- I seem to remember RH Whites, PLJ, Ribena etc all came with a deposit.

It is going to make little difference if there is an extra charge. I lost count of the bags for life that were thrown away in the bin by my local bottle bank, they all cost 10 pence each. Peanuts

This is a throwaway society; sadly it's going to take a while to educate not only the children but their parents.

Ben84

A lot of people - myself included - can't be bothered with this kind of thing. And that's actually why I think it could be a success. Manufacturers and retailers will start finding alternatives, and potential benefits to the environment depend which way they go. If the choice is going back to glass and metal, which are much more energy intensive materials to make, it would be a bad outcome. However, the other option is refill packaging. Either larger bottles or lightweight refill bags.

A deposit that's set per container could also encourage people towards buying bigger containers of products - which tend to use less plastic per unit of contents, or towards buying more concentrated products. People will start seeing things like "2X concentrated laundry detergent halves bottle use" and that will sound a whole lot more attractive if bottles have a tangible price.

The benefits may not be in getting large numbers to bring their bottles back, but more in changing how we use bottles. I've already reduced my use of packaging, but really need more retailers and manufacturers to make products that help me do this to go any further. Either way though, I can't see myself spending time sorting rubbish and taking it back to the shops. I'm happy to take home less in the first place however. More people are likely to think this way when bottles have a clear price, and as people get used to this and options to avoid bottles grow, the deposit could go up in price and push consumption down further.

silverwhistle

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/02/plastic-bottle-deposit-scheme-in-uk-proving-a-hit-with-shoppers

sevenhills

JKenH wrote: »

It would be great if such a scheme would work with kids collecting bottles to raise money for good causes or us having charity bottle banks.

It is a small minority of people who carelessly and recklessly discard their waste. We have to educate (brainwash) kids from an early age that littering has consequences.

Charities get a massive ammount of money from the 5p carrier bag tax and donations.
I dont believe the litter from Manchester or Leeds ends up in the oceans, although its always better to go straight in the bin.

TheMoneySpider

Plastic waste needs to make our blood run cold. We need to educate about how everything we throw into landfill is basically wasted and there forever.


The other day I (along with everyone else I presume) got a free 30 day trial of Amazon Prime sent to me through the post, it came with a completely superfluous plastic card. Tens of thousands of them will have ended in landfill without us even thinking about it.


That needs to be unthinkable if we are ever to solve the problem. Incentivised deposit type systems will only go so far when big corporations like Amazon are happily doing that sort of thing.