The Daily Telegraph

Shoppers facing 20p-a-bottle tax to cut down waste

- By Sarah Knapton

SHOPPERS could be charged up to 20p more for each plastic bottle they buy under plans being considered by the Government to stop waste clogging up landfill sites and entering oceans.

Recycle and Reward trials are already under way across Scotland, where people can get incentives such as money back or discount vouchers for returning bottles.

Ministers are watching the pilots closely to see whether similar schemes could be rolled out south of the border.

A new litter strategy is being devised jointly by the Department for Environmen­t (Defra) and the Department of Communitie­s and Local Government.

It could involve bottle return schemes, although the Government has ruled out a new flat tax such as the 5p charge for plastic bags, which was brought in last year.

Shoppers would pay more for items such as bottles of water, but would get money back when they returned the waste packaging to bottle banks.

Charities including Greenpeace say bottle bank schemes also put pressure on the companies who produce bottles to ensure that their materials are recyclable, while also making customers think about the blight of plastic.

Bottle return schemes are running successful­ly in Germany, Denmark and some states in Australia and the USA.

Some councils in Britain already incentivis­e householde­rs by offering vouchers for recycling. In Windsor, 71 per cent of people now regularly recycle because of incentives and Ealing, Bexley and Lambeth councils in London operate similar schemes.

Studies have shown that a scheme can reduce the amount of littered drink containers, lead to more recycling and contribute to the circular economy – where resources are used again and again to extract maximum value. The Scottish Government has already said it is looking at such a scheme.

The calls to tackle plastic, glass and metal drinks containers come after it emerged that just one in every 400 paper coffee cups is recycled because their plastic lining makes them difficult to process.

However, some MPs have argued that asking customers to pay up front is a “punishment” rather than a reward scheme, which could mean people losing money if they do not have the time to recycle.

A Scottish report into the recent pilots warned that the money lost by customers failing to return bottles could run into millions of pounds.

 ??  ?? Schemes where people get money back for returning plastic bottles are already a success in Germany
Schemes where people get money back for returning plastic bottles are already a success in Germany

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