Anger as shoppers told to pay again for reusable water bottles

CONSUMERS expressed outrage this week after being told to pay new deposits for reusable water bottles amid claims of a health “crackdown”.

Some retailers have been refusing to exchange 19-litre plastic bottles produced before 2014 after suppliers said they would not take them back.

It means that aggrieved shoppers have effectively lost their initial “refundable” deposits and been left with the task of disposing of the older bottles, commonly used for water coolers at homes and businesses.

Karşıyaka resident Pearl Mitchell said she first learned of the policy when she attempted to exchange four empty Evsu bottles at the İleli supermarket in Alsancak on Monday.

“I was told that as the bottles were manufactured before 2014, they would not accept them,” she said.

“I therefore was asked to pay the deposit for new bottles . . . How can I be asked to pay . . . through no fault of my own?

“It should be the duty of Evsu to meet this and not the consumer. I only bought one of the bottles a week earlier. Why was there no issue then?

“This is not the fault of the supermarket, but of Evsu for making such demands.”

İleli supermarket’s Esra İleli said shops had been “caught in the middle”.

“How can a company just take a sudden decision . . . and expect us to charge consumers for this?” she added.

A spokesman for the CypriCola company, which owns the Evsu brand, said it was merely acting in accordance with a Health Ministry law “banning the sale and reuse” of bottles over five years old.

The spokesman added that all bottles undergo “cleaning and maintenance” prior to every filling.

Consumers’ Association chairman Hasan Yılmaz Işık said it was “unacceptable” for shoppers to be asked to foot the bill for new plastic bottles.

“We have been inundated with emails and telephone calls from people wanting to know whether or not they have to pay: the answer is ‘No’.

“It is the responsibility of the drinking water companies to provide the bottles in accordance with the law. And it should be their responsibility to destroy the bottles once they have collected them, and not the consumers.

“The Health Minister should see that consumers have become a sandwich between supermarkets and the water companies because of the lack of clarity on the issue. This is a crisis, as is the health hazard from these bottles.”

Health Minister Filiz Besim confirmed the existence of the five-year rule, but said the real “crisis” had been the lack of implementation of the law for “many years”.

She said there were now “many more checks” in the sector and that 37 companies had been “reprimanded” over recent months for using old bottles.

Funda Dias, a former adviser to Britain’s environment department who now lives in North Cyprus, said the 19litre bottles were designed for just 60 refills and could start releasing the chemical BPA into the water at temperatures over 14°C.

“On average, this means they have a life of only three months,” she told this paper. “Realistically any bottle that does not bear a date or has a date older than 2018 should be taken out of circulation for health reasons.

“However, this should not be the supermarket or the public’s problem. The distributors and producers should take responsibility.”