Time to get moving on deposit return scheme for plastics

Why can’t life just settle down and be simple? Surely it’s not much to ask.

Plastics, for instance. We all know they’re A Bad

Thing, don’t we? Or maybe not.

Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Peter II series really woke the nation to the threat of plastics in the ocean.

I have been writing occasionally about beach cleans and plastic pollution for years, and was bemused (and pleased) to see my young colleagues jumping on to the bandwagon earlier this year.

But be careful what you wish for. Nearly ten years ago I wrote a scathing piece reprimanding supermarkets for shrink-wrapping cucumbers. That was followed a week later by a humble retraction after I had learned that the plastic wrapping considerably lengthens a cucumber’s shelf life and therefore cuts the amount of aviation fuel used to fly them to Britain.

The anti-plastics lobby is in full cry now, with some support from the supermarkets themselves.

Yet a group of academics is warning that an outright ban on plastics could lead to greater environmental damage.

The academics from HeriotWatt University in Edinburgh say that arguments manufacture due to the energy consumed and resources – including water – required to process them.”

Transporting consumer goods in lightweight plastic packaging means fewer vehicles are needed, burning less fuel and greatly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“In many cases there is no credible alternative to using a plastic so we need to move towards a ‘circular economy’ for plastics, rather than the largely make-use-dispose model we currently adopt.”

Step into the ring Michael Gove, who announced back in the spring that the government would be launching a consultation on introducing a deposit return scheme for single use drinks containers – plastic, glass or metal.

Yet in Parliament last week Environment Minister Therese Coffey was still unable to give a date for the start of such a scheme, saying that “the consultation ... will be published shortly and it will look at the details of how a scheme could work, alongside the other measures to increase recycling rates.

“We are continuing to work with the devolved administrations, potentially on a UK scheme.”

Britain is not a pioneer in this – deposit return schemes already operate in many countries.

Unlike my cucumbers, there can be no downside when all we would be doing is keeping the plastic out of the environment.

So please, Mr Gove – do get on with it.

The anti-plastics lobby is in full cry now, with support from supermarkets