In Britain today we are recycling more than ever before, however as a nation of recyclers we still have far to go. In 1998-1999 some 28million tonnes of municipal waste were produced from households, of which a staggering 83% was land-filled. Britons appear to be increasingly conscientious in their recycling efforts, with paper and glass becoming a much lower portion of the waste sent to landfill. The figures for plastic packaging however appear rather different; of the 1.66 million tonnes of plastic packaging waste produced in 2001 a mere 7% was recycled. One only has to visit a supermarket and almost every product is encased in some kind of plastic packaging, of which 93% will be destined to landfill disposal. Of course it would simply not be reasonable to suggest that we, as a nation, can change this overnight, but we could all be doing far more.

Perhaps by looking at plastic bottles for instance we will see the scale of the problem, as the likelihood is that we will each use several every single day. The supply of fresh milk is no longer the preserve of the local milkman and his reusable glass bottles, the chances are that your breakfast milk this morning came from a supermarket carton, plastic of course. The bottle of mineral water on your desk - plastic? The list is pretty substantial, just for the average household in the UK. So why then as a nation do we only manage to recycle 3% of plastic bottles which we use each year?

Unlike glass, paper and aluminium cans we don’t seem to feel so obliged to consider the destiny of our plastic waste. This may be due to a possible lack to focus upon plastic waste in campaigns to the public over the years, or perhaps due to a perceived lack of recycling facilities when compared to glass bottle and newspaper banks. Many Councils across the UK have improved waste collection services to include plastics, but does the average householder know how to separate their PVC from their PET or HDPE? Of course, such kerbside services are not free, and with households across the UK seeing an alarming rise in Council Tax bills in recent years, perhaps there may be a better way in which to encourage us to recycle more of our plastic bottles. My proposal is neither radical nor particularly new - it’s called a deposit. Perhaps 20p on every plastic bottle sold in the shops, regardless of content, volume or composition.

In other EU countries such as Germany and Switzerland the majority of plastic bottles for mineral water or soft drinks bottles have a 25cent surcharge applied to the price. Supermarkets and other outlets allow for empty bottles to subsequently be returned. In the entrance area of such a supermarket are deposit machines, an empty bottle is placed in a circular hole, the bottles barcode is scanned, and then passed by a small conveyor belt to a processing room on the other side. The eco-conscious shopper may pass bottle after bottle through the machine and when finished will be rewarded by a printed receipt to the value of the surcharged bottles deposited. They can then continue with their shopping and claim the deposit refund off their bill at the checkout.

Possibly one of the reasons for the low level of plastic recycling in the UK is the perceived net cost which is deemed to be less lucrative than more popular schemes such as those involving aluminium cans and glass. This results in a catch 22 situation that until the volume of plastic waste collected for recycling increases there will be few companies willing to consider the economic viability of plastic recycling. In turn this results in the relative lack of plastics recycling facilities available to the consumer and hence the low volumes of plastic waste available to make such initiatives viable to the recycling industry.

Deposits on bottles, albeit glass bottles, were an accepted norm in the UK not too many years ago. At a time when we produce more packaging waste than ever, perhaps deposits on plastic bottles would act to see our national recycling targets improved. If every milk carton, mineral water bottle or cola bottle thrown without thought into the dustbin by a UK household had a deposit applied at the time of purchase there would be a tangible and very real reason not to simply reach for the bin at 20 pence a time. In turn this would increase the volume of plastic available for recycling thus encouraging greater investment and the development of a nationwide deposit / recovery system on plastic bottles, with collection facilities available at every supermarket.

It would be nave to suggest that this is an easy task to achieve, but at a time when the average UK household is more aware of the eco-necessity of recycling than ever before, perhaps it is worth genuine consideration. When such a deposit and return scheme was first implemented in Germany, the error initially was made of requiring plastic bottles to be returned to the place of purchase. In Germany, as in the UK a significant proportion of plastic bottles are discarded away from the home, as people go about their daily business. If on a train journey from Manchester to London would you be diligent enough to hold on to your empty bottle purchased at the start of your journey to be deposited back at the vendor upon your return? This is only part of the chaos arising from the lack of forethought when the scheme initially was rolled out in Germany. However go into a shop in Switzerland or Germany today and buy a bottle of mineral water, you can then return this to any recycling point across the country to not only recover your 25cents but also, and most importantly, reduce the volume of plastic being indefinitely interred to landfill. If this can be realised in Switzerland and Germany then why not here in the UK?

Selected References:

1. Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (2000). Her Majestys Stationary Office, 2000.
2. DEFRA (2005). www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/topics/plastics.htm, Accessed 30.01.06.
3. www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/Plastics.htm, Accessed 30.01.06.
4. Stevens (2003), Expanding Plastic Bottle Recycling in Essex and Cambridgeshire. Anglia Polytechnic University. http://www.ccorrn.org.uk/pdf/Plasticbottes.pdf
5. Waste Watch (2003), Plastics in the UK economy a guide for polymer use and the opportunities for recycling. Waste Watch, Tooley Street, London, UK.