Government and local councils etc. are trying to get us to recycle more?!

Why haven't they brought back deposits on bottles and other packaging where possible? Would probably give people the incentive to recycle more, and may cut down on litter as those that can't be arsed to carry stuff to a bin might not drop it in the first place if there were a few pennies in it, and the between homes type person might go around collecting bottles etc..

Or is there a glaringly obvious reason why not?

I totally agree. It would cut down on landfill, and collecting bottles etc, would help to provide kids with extra pocket money. They should slap a tax on goods which are unnecessarily, provided in non-deposit/refundable bottles and packaging.

It would make sense in my view, and green brownie points to companies that did it.

There's no good reason why not.

In Denmark, there is a standard size for beer bottles and plastic drinks bottles, and they are reused dozens of times, which is far better than recycling. Most supermarkets have what looks like a vending machine where you feed in the old bottles, it prints you a receipt, and then you can take it to the counter and they give you the money back (or just offset it against your shopping).

It's insane that we spend so much money and oil on stuff that is used once, then either binned and never rots, or is recycled in a pretty labour-intensive manner, instead of just washing it out and reusing it.

Totally agree. The delivery lorries are returning to depots with a 1/4 load of cages/trolleys and cardboard, might as well return other stuff.

Either that, or start supplying lots more stuff in bladder style packs to refill bottles at home.

I'd be all for it.

I've been living in Ethiopia since February, and returns are the norm. The bottle is worth more than the contents inside it…

It's great to see bottle returns again- but can be a hassle until people know you and trust you'll bring the empties back. Otherwise you have to pay for the bottle- so a beer which costs 6 birr, will cost you 12 birr including the bottle.

In Denmark, there is a standard size for beer bottles and plastic drinks bottles, and they are reused dozens of times, which is far better than recycling. Most supermarkets have what looks like a vending machine where you feed in the old bottles, it prints you a receipt, and then you can take it to the counter and they give you the money back (or just offset it against your shopping).

Same system in many other parts of europe. It seems to make a lot of sense and work well. I guess the difficult thing with implementing something like it here would be coordinating between major manufacturers and standardising their bottles. If you got a few main ones on board it could possibly cut costs for them which might get them (and in turn the smaller ones) interested?

Barr (Irn Brew) still do it north of the border, but not as common a sight as they used to be. "Glass Cheques" are worth 20p.

I've always though wine bottles should be standardised.

Its something the supermarkets should / could drive, their buying power is so great now (and such a large proportion of what they stock is own-label anyway) that they could make standard, returnable packaging a condition of stocking a product.

Better that than all the distracting bluster about carrier bags.

As a kid I used to nick a crate of deposit bottles from behind the pub and then take it to the corner shop for £2.40 worth of BonBons. 😀

When I was a kid it was the norm

The alcy next door used to regularly give us 50 or so Brown ale bottles, mind you the shop wouldn't give us cash for them, we had to buy stuff 🙂

If you got a few main ones on board it could possibly cut costs for them which might get them (and in turn the smaller ones) interested?

The correct approach is to tell bottlers, not ask them – make it law. There are standard specs for plenty of other products.

because returnable packaging (like glass bottles) has to be more robust so it can be washed and re-used so it has to be heavier and thus costs more to transport, with product and back + energy to wash etc, plus glass bottles are not very space efficient as they are round etc.. and in use are ergonomically poor.

glas milk bottles now on average are only re-used 7-9 times though it used to be 20times – this is becuase they have been thinned down to make them light and easier to hold to compete with HDPE jugs – as they are thinner they are less robust and thus can not be re-used so many times.

also in this country we have a lot of green glass waste (beer, wine), brown (beer) but glass manufactures in the UK want clear cullet. Most brown glass goes to Brazil.

we need to have more bulk import of liquids like wine with local bottling etc to improve transport densities

There are a number of reverse vending machines in operation – tesco has them for example as do a number of schools, thay take in packaging and give you points or tuck shop credit.

http://www.reversevending.co.uk/ as an example

As a kid I used to nick a crate of deposit bottles from behind the pub and then take it to the corner shop for £2.40 worth of BonBons

We used to steal them from behind the shop we took them back into LOL! He soon cottoned on and started marking the bottles with a marker pen when he took them in. So we just nipped across the road to the cricket club instead.

Happy days.

When i was on holiday in Austria, the bars had a policy of 20 cents return on a bottle of beer, they then returnrd the empty bottles to the supplier who gave the correct bottles to the breweries to washed and re-used them. I thought this was a grea idea for a couple of reasons but mainly as it ment the busy bars could have more staff on serving rather than collecting bottles.

They did a similar thing with glases too, amazing how when you pay a deposit for a glass you make extra sure not to drop it.

In Vancouver, there used to be a deposit on cans and bottle which was refunded when you took them back. Of course most people didn't bother but it was a valuable revenue stream for the disadvantaged part of the populace.

Agree with the bulk transport and vending. They do this in rural areas of France with wine. Turn up with a container and they will fill it for you. Whay can't it work here too?

As kids we used to also collect the bottles and get 5p per bottle. The trouble is nowadays that kids won't do anything for less than a fiver!!!!

I remember spending afternoons as a kid wombling for pocket money. You could fairly easily fill a carrier bag or two just by scouring the streets and parks for discarded glass bottles.

We had white dog poo back then too. Happy days. <sniff>

Agree with the bulk transport and vending. They do this in rural areas of France with wine. Turn up with a container and they will fill it for you. Whay can't it work here too?

some cider presses in herefordshire and zomerzet will fill up any container you turn up with – even old anitfreeze tubs lol! even if they have just seen you empty the dregs into you car and given it a coursory rinse!

just make it teh seller of a products responibility to pay for the disposal of any rubbish found in the street
macdonalds would be hit with a large bill

As a kid I used to nick a crate of deposit bottles from behind the pub and then take it to the corner shop for £2.40 worth of BonBons

We used to do this by jumping over the wall into the brewery depot and taking Grolsh bottles to the offie around the corner. We used to have to persuade the bloke in the offie that our Dad gave them to us to take back. 10p a go I think.

When I was a kid you could only get fizzy drinks in bottles, which you got money for when you gave back. Milk came in glass bottles via the milkman who took them away the next day when he left more milk.

Biscuits came in big square boxes with windows in the lids. The shopkeeper would weigh out what you wanted and give them to you in a paper bag. One box contained assorted broken biscuits. Yummy and cheap too.

I don't remember supermarkets, meat came from the butcher in minimal wrapping, fruit and veg from the green'grocer's' in minimal or no wrapping, just weighed and put in [my aunt's] shopping bag.

The pig man came round with his horse and cart and took away all veg peelings and what little waste food there was.

The rag and bone man came round (with his horse and cart) and took away all old clothes, furniture, bones and anything the pigs wouldn't eat.

Bones and other uneaten animal parts got made into glue.

Everything was recycled, then we got 'modern' and everything got thrown away, now we're turning back to recycling.

Funny old world innit?