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UK 'could adopt Norway recycling system'
A Scandinavian system for recycling bottles is thought likely to be adopted in the UK. Advisers to government say the schemes have massively reduced plastic litter in the environment and seas. And a ministerial delegation has been to Norway to see if the UK should copy an industry-led scheme that recycles 98% of bottles. In the UK, figures show that only around half of all plastic bottles get recycled.
Norway claims to offer the most cost-efficient way of tackling plastic litter. The Norwegian government decided the best method would be to put a tax on every bottle that's not recycled - then leave the operating details of the scheme up to business.
It works like this: the consumer pays a deposit on every bottle, from 10p to 25p depending on size. They return it empty and post it into a machine which reads the barcode and produces a coupon for the deposit. If the careless consumer has left liquid in the bottle, the machine eats it anyway - but hands the deposit to the shopkeeper who'll need to empty the bottle.
Similar schemes are in operation in other Nordic nations, Germany, and some states in the US and Canada.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Wednesday February 07 2018, @07:14PM
I noticed recently the number of states where there is a deposit has been steadily dropping, as curbside recycling programs expand state wide. I've lived in states which tried the fee method, and everybody hated it, especially the retailers who had to put up with people dragging in bags of poorly cleaned plastics/glass/cans into their clean stores. It was largely an under-funded mandate and nobody liked it.
The culture of recycling is slowly taking over, but the success rate varies dramatically around the country.
We are quibbling about where the sorting is done. And to a lesser extent, who pays. Because recycling is not cost effective when all costs are considered.
The quaint idea that recycling pays for itself is about as bogus as saying prisons turning out model citizens. There is just no market for this stuff.
Where I now live there is mandatory curbside recycling county wide, and I think this applies to most counties in the state except the really rural farm areas. (You can opt out, but then you have to haul your own recyclables, because trash pickup won't accept them). The recycling extends to everything, un-sorted, glass, plastic, metals, paper, cardboard.
The sorting is moved to the back end, (post consumer) because the consumer side is horrible at this, even with the best of intentions. I'm not convinced a row of machines accepting only specific recyclables and rejecting others is any better than bulk recycle to automated separation/sort facilities. Its just more fiddling with who sorts and who pays.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.