Plastic recycling machines to pay 10p for bottles
SUPERMARKETS are launching trials of reverse vending machines that pay shoppers 10p for every plastic bottle or drinks can they return.
The move is designed to assess public reaction to the idea, which is seen as central to tackling the huge waste and blight caused by plastic bottles.
The machines are widely used in Scandinavia and Germany where they are part of a deposit and return schemes (DRS) that have been hugely successful in increasing recycling and reducing litter.
Polls show DRS has the support of 80 per cent of Britons, who have been alerted to the threat to the environment, wildlife and the oceans by the Daily Mail’s Turn the Tide on Plastic campaign.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove says the Government supports the introduction of a DRS campaign and a consultation is expected later this year. Last month the Scottish government launched its own public consultation on introducing DRS through the group Zero Waste Scotland, which is looking at what containers should be included and the value of the deposits.
Morrisons yesterday said it was installing a reverse vending machine in a store in Skipton, North Yorkshire, and another in East Kilbride, Scotland.
The Iceland chain is trialling them at a store in Fulham, west London, and three of its Food Warehouse outlets. Each bottle is exchanged for a 10p voucher.
An estimated 35 million plastic bottles and 20 million aluminium cans are sold in the UK daily. Fewer than 60 per cent of bottles are recycled.
By contrast, collection and recycling rates are over 90 per cent in countries with deposit schemes. It is estimated 12 million tons of plastic enters the world’s oceans every year, putting the lives of all forms of marine life at risk.
There are fears that toxins originating from plastics are then re- entering the food chain through seafood.
The machines at Morrisons will accept all plastic bottles and drinks cans that have a barcode as well as the chain’s own-brand bottles that may not have one.
Customers get 100 Morrisons More points – the equivalent of 10p – for each container posted into the machines and can return a maximum of 20 a day. Alternatively, they can choose to donate the money to the supermarket’s charity partner, CLIC Sargent.
Morrisons spokesman Andrew Clappen said: ‘We want to play our part in making sure plastic bottles are collected and recycled.
‘We’ll listen to customers as they use these machines.’
Iceland’s Richard Walker said: ‘Through our trials, we hope to understand how to make it easier for people to act in an environmentally conscious way while tackling the threat of the millions of plastic bottles that go unrecycled every day.’