[News] Return deposit on bottles.

[GOM]

It's a very easy system. Most super markets will have the recycling machines, put your bottles in and it'll give you a receipt, do you shop and at the end scan it in and get money off. Although we think we're better off alone, we could learn a lot from that lot over le channel

We can no doubt learn from all over the world about many things, lets not restrict this to the small pool that is over le channel.

 

[Blue3]

Makes total sense been doing it on mainland Europe for years

 

[BNthree]

Yes, I too take it seriously, but for the life of me don't know in which bin to put the empty plastic beer container.

Really like what they do at Sussex Cricket ground; you pay a £1 deposit on a beer for the plastic "glass" it comes in. Take it back and get your £1 returned. At end of cricket match there are hordes of kids going around collecting them up to earn some cash. Pretty easy for the kids to get £20+ each and keeps waste levels and staff time down. Glasses all then get cleaned for next time.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Maybe we see kids in the bushes up and down the A27 they will make a fortune.

I thought the Environment Minster was Michael Gove, not Jimmy Savile.

 

[pearl]

I shall start stockpiling all my bottles and cans from now with the hope I will make a killing when this starts !

genius!

 

[KVLT]

genius!

As the policy is finally put into action GOM makes his first trip to Tesco.

 

[pauli cee]

Really like what they do at Sussex Cricket ground; you pay a £1 deposit on a beer for the plastic "glass" it comes in. Take it back and get your £1 returned. At end of cricket match there are hordes of kids going around collecting them up to earn some cash. Pretty easy for the kids to get £20+ each and keeps waste levels and staff time down. Glasses all then get cleaned for next time.

Ha, not just kids, some adults too......ahem......

 

[Sorrel]

Glad to see this happening. When I lived in the Nordic countries this was just standard normal behaviour and seemed to work fine; it can work well here, too.

 

[Mackenzie]

It works really well in Germany, surprised it’s taken as long as this to reach us in the UK.

No inconvenience and it’s quite good fun seeing the bottles disappearing into the machine, although I am very easily pleased like that.

 

[Super Steve Earle]

I can remember in the seventies during the school summer holidays going round the local building sites collecting the empty Corona bottles that the builders had left behind,then taking them back to the shop.
They didn't seem to mind and as far as I can remember it didn't take too many to get a full bottle back with the proceeds.

If the builders of my house are anything to go by, the builders use the bottles to pee in rather than use the new toilets in the houses they build. Found one hidden in the loft and one under the shower. Half full!

 

[vegster]

What's happened to the Tories ? for years all we have had is penury, cuts and downright bullshit about how they are funding this that and the other when it's patently obvious that they are not, then finally they wake up and, offer a pay increase to NHS staff, admit the NHS needs more money, Start a huge programme of training more Midwives and now something sensible like a deposit on cans cartons and bottles.....has Theresa May been abducted by aliens and re-programmed ?

 

[spongy]

The problem in all of this is because it's plastic. I'm currently studying an HNC in manufacturing engineering and I'm researching "plastics" or "polymers" in the materials unit.

Plastics are horrible. There's two types. Thermoplastic and thermoset. Thermoset can't be recycled. Stuff like butter tubs and bakelite. Thermoplastic can but only up to 3 maybe 4 times. Then it's just discarded. Recycled plastic although functional isn't considered good enough for the large manufacturers. Now I know what happens I can see the difference in a few things compared to products made from "virgin" plastic.

Plastic is the most versatile material we have. After metals and alloys. Scientists are always inventing new metals and plastics with different properties that didn't exist before. Then engineers have to figure out ways to use them. (Smart materials are brilliant and evolving in ways you wouldn't even know, have a google).

Plastics take forever to break down. If at all. But the problem is that it's such a versatile and cheap material to form that big companies will continue to use it.

If you can find an alternative material to use instead of plastic that is cheaper to use, easier to use AND environmentally friendly that can replace it in all its uses then you will be the richest person in the world. Forever

 

[vegster]

I was thinking the other day when making up my lunchtime roll, why can't you buy small waxed paper bags anywhere ?, the type you get from Greggs ?

 

[Sorrel]

Plastics take forever to break down. If at all. But the problem is that it's such a versatile and cheap material to form that big companies will continue to use it.

One of the major problems with it is this part. It just gets smaller, but - unlike most other materials - it is not attacked by microbes or atmospheric conditions and so just continues to exist in increasingly small pieces. My guess is that in 100 years or so microscopic plastic will be considered one the most important problems facing the world.

What matters with a replacement substance is biodegradability. There probably is not a single substance but a whole line of them to replace current plastic use. I know there have been useful work on fungoid material, but it is very hard to produce in the quantities required.

In my house we've been looking for replacement material for wrapping around lunches and to try and stop using cling-film/sandwich bags. It's not straightforward to find.

 

[spongy]

Yes it is getting smaller. The bonds are being refined so much that is was added to make up as a foundation. Recently the government banned microbeads in make up. The problem is that microbeads technology was so small that it is isn't visible to the naked eye so no-one can see the issue. Just think how much of this stuff is in the water table that we can't see!

Personally I don't use cling film or similar. I've always been an aluminium foil bloke.

Just reading this thread and looking around my front room it's staggering just how much plastic there is that doesn't biodegrade in everything I own. From the phone I'm holding. To the remote for the tv. Our tv unit is made of wood but there's plastic screw caps in it. The soles of my slippers. The nylon in my socks. The material in our sofa cushions. To stuff you can't see like electric wire insulation hidden in walls. The dials on our cooker....

None of this shit really degrades in the environment enough to say it doesn't pollute it.

I think until we find an alternative polymers will ruin the world's ecosystems quicker than climate change.

 

[BrickTamland]

Works really well here in Sweden. Recycling culture is huge here.

 

[Bodian]

It works really well in Germany, surprised it’s taken as long as this to reach us in the UK.

It's not that it's taken so long to reach us. We had a proper 'take back your bottles' system for many decades, so it's basically re-starting what we had (although the plastic elemnt is a step forward)

Last bottles I remember taking back for a refund were Newcastle Brown's in Durham back in c1994 (apart from my daily milk bottle) - the good thing about them were that they were re-used rather than recycled, which cuts out loads more energy usage.

 

[Mackenzie]

It's not that it's taken so long to reach us. We had a proper 'take back your bottles' system for many decades, so it's basically re-starting what we had (although the plastic elemnt is a step forward)

Last bottles I remember taking back for a refund were Newcastle Brown's in Durham back in c1994 (apart from my daily milk bottle) - the good thing about them were that they were re-used rather than recycled, which cuts out loads more energy usage.

Glass bottles.

These returns are for plastic, but I guess the principal is the same. I’m not sure when recycling of plastic bottles came about in Germany, but I thought it was a really good idea when we saw it. It’s at least three years ago, maybe more.

 

[dolphins]

try being less negative. Millions do it in Germany, as I have experienced. there are no queues, though there might be one person on occasion in front of you and you can offset the shopping bill at the till with the value of the voucher. Couldn't be easier.

Another vote for this - have used it a lot in Finland and it works a treat. You don't see discarded cans or bottles anywhere...or not for long, anyway!

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I’m struggling to understand any of the negativity about this. It works perfectly in many other nations so why is it such a cost-prohibitive idea which few will take up in the U.K.?