Recycling scheme could save us up to £40m, say experts
A RADICAL initiative to help tackle Scotland’s growing litter problems could save the country more than £40million, a report has revealed.
Research found councils could save up to £15million a year alone through a bottle deposit scheme cutting waste collections.
Government-funded body Zero Waste Scotland yesterday published its report, Deposit Return Evidence, and Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham has asked it to devise a model of how the initiative would work north of the Border.
The Scottish Daily Mail’s Banish the Bottles campaign calls for a 10p charge on plastic bottles or cans, which is refunded when empties are returned to shops.
Zero Waste Scotland highlights a number of opportunities such a scheme could bring – including cutting the amount of littered plastic bottles by up to 90 per cent. The report sets out how Scotland could save more than £40million a year through factors such as councils cutting kerbside collections.
A reduction in litter would also see a reduced need for clean-ups.
Recycled material from bottles would also be a higher quality than comes from other plastics such as food wrappings, which means it could be sold at a higher price.
The report states a reduction in disposal costs would save councils between £2.6million and £6.2million, adding that ‘treatment and management costs for local authorities reduce by between £5.3million and £9.2million in the scenarios we modelled’.
This means local authorities could save more than £15million a year if a bottle deposit scheme was launched.
The report adds: ‘We believe the wider reduction in the costs litter pollution places on society from a deposit system probably fall between £10million and £40million.’
Yesterday John Mayhew, director of the Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland, which is running the Have You Got The Bottle? campaign, said: ‘The sooner we adopt a system of this sort the better, which is why we are so pleased to see work has begun on designing a system that works well for all concerned.’
Most MSPs support the idea of a bottle-deposit scheme, while Coca-Cola has said the initiative is the ‘only show in town’ to clean up Scotland’s streets.
However, retailers have expressed concerns over the potential cost of implementing the initiative.
Ewan MacDonald-Russell, Scottish Retail Consortium’s head of policy and external affairs, said: ‘Scottish retailers face an incredibly uncertain economic situation right now.
‘This scheme will be hugely expensive for retailers.
‘It will cost tens of millions to install reverse vending machines, cannibalising profitable floor space for unprofitable waste machines and hugely inconveniencing customers.’
Announcing that the Scottish Government had commissioned experts to draft a model scheme, Miss Cunningham said: ‘I am grateful to Zero Waste Scotland for its work so far on deposit return and to everyone who provided evidence to help us better understand the benefits of deposit return for recycling and reducing litter, and potential impacts on retailers and local authorities.’