Shops told to take back used plastic bottles

A PLASTIC bottle deposit scheme must be introduced despite objections from corner shops, MPS have said.

The environmental audit committee said that up to 20p should be placed on the cost of plastic bottled drinks, which would be returned when customers brought back their waste.

The committee report warned that only 7.5billion of the 13billion plastic bottles used in the UK each year are recycled, while the rest end up in landfill, are littered or incinerated.

MPS claimed that a return scheme could boost recycling rates to 90 per cent.

However, shopkeepers expressed concern that bulky deposit machines would take up retail space and that returned bottles may be unhygienic.

The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) calculated that the average small store would need to deal with 180 drinks containers each day, and lose £62,000 in lost floor space.

James Lowman, of ACS, said: “In our sector there would be significant costs to our small stores in terms of the proportion of space taken up by a reverse vending solution and manual returns. Every member I speak to says the idea of taking back dirty containers over a counter where you are selling food is just not feasible.”

However committee members said the rising tide of plastic waste was a major concern that must be tackled. Most Britons will use 150 plastic water bottles each year, while Londoners get through 175 bottles and some 700,000 bottles are littered each day in the UK.

MPS also want all public premises serving food or drink, including leisure and sports centres, to be required to provide free drinking water on request, and public water fountains to be more widespread. Mary Creagh MP, chair of the environmental audit committee, said: “Urgent action is needed to protect our environment from the devastating effects of marine plastic pollution which, if it continues to rise at current rates, will outweigh fish by 2050.

“Plastic bottles make up a third of all plastic pollution in the sea, and are a growing litter problem on UK beaches. We need action at individual, council, regional and national levels to turn back the plastic tide.”

Scotland’s government has already announced plans for a deposit return scheme and Department of Environment is currently consulting on a similar Uk-wide project.

In the new report, MPS also called for companies to be made financially responsible for the plastic packaging they produce.

Producers currently pay for only 10 per cent of the cost of packaging disposal and recycling, leaving taxpayers to pay the other 90 per cent.

Dr Laura Foster, head of clean seas at the Marine Conservation Society, said: “We wholeheartedly support the findings of the Committee.”