Norway claims to have the most cost-efficient way of tackling plastic
litter, with an industry-led scheme that recycles 97% of bottles. (Similar
schemes are in operation in other Nordic nations, Germany, and some states in
the US and Canada.) In the UK, figures show that only around half of all
plastic bottles get recycled.
In Norway there is a tax on every bottle that's not recycled. How the scheme works is down to business. The consumer pays a deposit on
every bottle - the equivalent of 10p to 25p depending on size. They return it
empty and post it into a machine which reads the barcode and produces a coupon
for the deposit. If liquid is left in the bottle, the
machine accepts it anyway - but the deposit goes to the shopkeeper who'll need to
empty the bottle.
The deposit-return machine accepts only two types of plastic bottle,
with approved labels and approved glue to fix the labels. This allows the
labels to be stripped easily, and simplifies recycling.
In the UK, roadside collections of plastic bottles are contaminated by rogue
rubbish being put in the recycling container.
Homeless people also collect discarded bottles to get the deposit back.
To avoid them rummaging in waste bins in public places, racks are provided for
discarded plastic bottles.
Scotland has already committed to a deposit return scheme, but Westminster
has been more cautious due to lobbying
by drinks manufacturers and fears from small shops about the administrative burden. Norway's small shopkeepers are said to generally favour the deposit return
system, being paid a small fee for each bottle, and benefiting from increased footfall from people returning bottles.
But even in Norway, not everyone complies; the worst offenders are
youngsters drinking energy drinks on the way to school. So some schools have
now installed bottle collecting racks at the school gates to avoid plastic
bottles going into general rubbish bins.
A municipal recycling scheme, ROAF, collects the bins from 70,000 homes
on the outskirts of Oslo. Plastic bottles are isolated from other waste by
infrared recognition, but because they have been mixed with other waste during
collection they can't be used again for food grade packaging but get
down-graded into plastic furniture instead.
But even Norway's ultra-efficient recycling system can't compete with
new plastic on cost, as the ingredients of plastic are just too cheap. The
cost of each bottle is subsidised by a few pence by the manufacturer, and then passed
to the consumer.
Source: BBC news item 7 Feb 2018: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42953038
