Has been a success I’d say, given the numbers that have been published regarding the drop in use….

So…. Do we stop there?

What about –

Disposable coffee cups that apparently we have no way of recycling at present?
Takeaway food containers?
Plastic water bottles
Alu cans (specifically energy drinks what da yoot iz drinkin)

The above is pretty much the majority of the litter I see out and about, particularly the white polystyrene takeaway boxes.

Is there/will there be a plan to start dealing with the likes of this, as we did with the bag ‘tax’. I don’t see that education really works, particularly for school kids who are the worst offenders IME.

Thoughts?.

But you can re-use a carrier easily, not so much a tin can…

50p deposit on every energy gel sold.

Granted johndo, flashy – I’m staying out of that one!

Just really hacked off with litter these days. Selfish, lazy ****.

Pretty much all of the items you have mentioned can be recycled?

Exactly.

Except the cardboard coffee cups.

I don’t understand why they don’t bring back deposits on drink bottles.

They do it in Germany.

Pretty much all of the items you have mentioned can be recycled?

As could plastic bags. Its far better to reuse them or use a non throwaway item. It would be fairly easy to use a refillable container or take your own mug to Starbucks. Or some kind of mason jar for the hipsters. Charge 5p for all those things and I think it’d make a real difference. Need to do something with supermarket packaging too.

Just really hacked off with litter these days. Selfish, lazy ****.

Humans are litter. Just think about it. Someone throws an empty drinks can onto the ground…….the ground that has had lots of ugly tarmac thrown onto it by someone else already.

What gives someone the right to say one is worse than the other?

A drinks can, that’s not even permanent….tarmac on the other hand; that’s like God’s scribbled all over our planet with a giant permanent marker pen, but not in a good way.

Think about how beautiful the planet would look without us.

50p deposit on every energy gel sold.

There is an idea. Maybe they should be tagged upon sale to the buyer !

Yes the bag tax works as it has all over Europe. The reality is its an easy one as it saves the shops money as they no longer provode free bags so they are good with it. Also we now have to buy small bin bags as we used carriers before. As for the OPs list yes I’d go with all of that plus;

Box tax on mail order – a few quid a box and paid by size
Cut down flashy packaging on things like ready meals
Things in boxes – why does a toothpaste tube have to come in a box (because its easy to stack on a shelf) ?
….

@nickjb – You couldn’t really do the 5p charge though, if I go into a shop and buy a couple of items, I generally just carry them. You couldn’t do that with any of the items listed.

In Finland they have recycling machines for plastic bottles, glass bottles and cans, you feed them in and get euros back. Bloody great idea.

In Finland they have recycling machines for plastic bottles, glass bottles and cans, you feed them in and get euros back. Bloody great idea

In this country we have bins, but lots of folk don’t use them, how would you get them to use a recycling machine?.

The trouble is, nobody’s going to reuse their disposable coffee cups, takeaway shops aren’t going to be selling takeaway containers for life and nobody will be refilling their drinks cans.

You don’t get any money back from putting them in a bin, you with the machines in Finland.

The trouble is, nobody’s going to reuse their disposable coffee cups, takeaway shops aren’t going to be selling takeaway containers for life and nobody will be refilling their drinks cans.

I refill my drinking bottle, and carry it with me at work and to work sites.
I carry my mug with me at work, and to work sites.
I am sure that an effort to make things more recyclable (or at least lest plastic), and have a deposit or reward scheme, would work.

They have machines in every supermarket here in Germany for you to recycle and get your deposit back (glass beer bottles, too but usually at the bigger ones that have a separate drinks department ). Apparently it’s been a raging success as the supermarkets are making a fortune by selling on the plastic and aluminium. Win win for everyone.

Coffee cups.. follow the Norwegian model. You buy a travel mug for life, and then a lid every year and you get free coffee all year at service stations. Really good way of doing it.

I don’t understand why they don’t bring back deposits on drink bottles.

Yep if there was a 50p deposit on all drink bottles even if selfish muppets still slung them out of car windows they wouldn’t stay there for very long, kids or anyone who needed a bit of cash would soon collect them. 5 quid for 10 bottles would be very attractive.

Any drink not sold in a returnable bottle could have a 50p tax slapped on them. I have no doubt that would dramatically reduce demand and any tax collected could pay for litter clearance teams.

Sooner or later something needs to be done so it might as well be sooner rather than later.

Maybe I should have written almost nobody. I’m not sure a 5p charge is going to make a difference to the behaviour of most people spending £3 or £4 on a coffee. I’m guessing that when you carry your mug around you’re not buying your coffee from a chain shop? I also carry a drinks bottle around and refill it, but then I don’t buy water in plastic bottles.

In Finland they have recycling machines for plastic bottles, glass bottles and cans, you feed them in and get euros back. Bloody great idea.

There’s a thing like that on the uni campus where I work. I think it prints a voucher (worth pennies) to spend in the college shop.

Starbucks already sell reuseable coffee cups and give a discount is you use them.

I sometimes get my travel mug filled in Nero, but it then takes me about 2 hours before I can drink it as they make it so hot!

Think about how beautiful the planet would look without us.

Much of the planet would be covered in forest, which gets pretty bloody dull after a while! Humans have many downsides but their habit of deforestation isn’t always bad. Certainly Great Britain was just trees, trees and more trees before we turned up.

You don’t get any money back from putting them in a bin, you with the machines in Finland.

I’ve seen people fling money away because they couldn’t be bothered dealing with some change from a shop. Money back from a recycling machine would be great for those of us who already do bother to recycle but not sure it would make one bit of a difference to the scum out there who litter.

Lapdance vouchers?

They should stop selling bottles of piss too, lorry drivers only drink half of them before lobbing them onto the verve (autocorrect left in there)

Certainly Great Britain was just trees, trees and more trees before we turned up.

Sounds good, more trees would be great.

Humans have many downsides but their habit of deforestation isn’t always bad. Certainly Great Britain was just trees, trees and more trees before we turned up.

And what’s wrong with trees ? They’re bloody useful if you’re a squirrel.

In Finland they have recycling machines for plastic bottles, glass bottles and cans, you feed them in and get euros back. Bloody great idea

In this country we have bins, but lots of folk don’t use them, how would you get them to use a recycling machine?.

See above.

I’ve seen people fling money away because they couldn’t be bothered dealing with some change from a shop. Money back from a recycling machine would be great for those of us who already do bother to recycle but not sure it would make one bit of a difference to the scum out there who litter.

While that may be true, it’s also true that there are plenty who’d happily spend a couple of hours or so a week scavenging tins and bottles if it got them essentially free beer or fags money. Tins these days are very flimsy, and it doesn’t take much to squash them flat, in which case you could get a couple of dozen or so in a regular plastic carrier bag, after a while you’d have a few quids worth for little effort, I can see kids catching on to that to supplement their pocket money.

I don’t see that education really works, particularly for school kids who are the worst offenders IME.

Just really hacked off with litter these days. Selfish, lazy ****.

Aye. Older generations just **** one off into a copy of Razzle and discarded it into the otherwise pristine hedgerow.

Razzle was very much recyclable tho…..

Aye. Older generations just **** one off into a copy of Razzle and discarded it into the otherwise pristine hedgerow.

Kids these days have it too easy. No longer are they thrilled to find a sun faded page of byway bongo. The thought of footpath filth is anathema to them. One click on their phone or tablet and it’s straight to it.

Actually, in all seriousness, I think there’s something in this. Finding a copy of Mayfair (Yeah, I was always that classy!) back in the day showed you little more than pretty girls scantily, yet classily, dressed and then undressed. Hitting up the interwebz gets you straight to some nasty, nasty stuff. I know which I’d prefer my son to find.

Our blue recycling bin is emptied every week and a chip records the weight. Vouchers are then redeemed based on weight recycled. Seems a good idea. Except what do most people recycle? Milk bottles. Two kilos of water has more value that an empty bottle 😉

I always carry a coffee cup. A decent reduction when buying would be very welcome. 10p would make no difference. 50p would start a revolution. I like that Norwegian idea a lot.

Coffee cups should have a big charge, 50p or even a £1. People would quickly bring their own, in fact Starbucks etc would give them away. Job done.

When I was working in the States 25 years ago on a summers day in central park a guy would walk round with drinks in a bag of ice. 20 mins later another guy would come to collect the empty can. Capitalist solution, the deposit on the can meant they where collected. Simple.

based on weight recycled.

Wouldn’t it be better to produce less waste?

I like that Norwegian idea a lot.

It’s a national obsession because they have no space for landfill sites.

The weekly bin collection is the size of a supermarket carrier bag as everything must be re-used or re-cycled. Even down to crockery, you can’t throw away your odd plate when you get a new set, it has to go to the government run shops (like charity shops), had a baby, tough shit you’ve got to use washable nappies, etc.

It does help that:
a) the shops and products are geared up for this, you can leave packaging in supermarkets (which then forces the shops to cut down on packaging as they have to then pay for it’s disposal and people don’t want to spend their time doing it).
b) it’s cold, which means anything paper is burnt in the fire at home.

Imagine the uproar in this country if people were told their annual waste had to fit in a wheelie bin? There’s uproar if it’s limited to that much in 2 weeks!

Can we put a massive tax on individually wrapped items too? e.g. a single apple on a polystyrene tray, covered in clingfilm.

Reduction in packaging should be the first step!

birky – Member

There’s a thing like that on the uni campus where I work. I think it prints a voucher (worth pennies) to spend in the college shop.

We have that too- or you can donate the 10p to charity too, which apparently loads of people do. Nice touch but the machines are pretty big and seem a bit unreliable.

Some genius festival organiser started charging a 20p deposit on beer glasses a few years back. Course, everyone still threw their cups on the floor but an underclass soon emerged that’d happily spend £200 for their festival ticket then spend all day collecting cups.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YbhqRsH7fdo/U58iXefkJoI/AAAAAAAAB-s/WaFd1xQRSkY/s1600/download+festival+cup+collection.JPG

Late stage capitalism in action but it did mean less mess (and less toxic reading festival cup fires)

Some genius festival organiser started charging a 20p deposit on beer glasses a few years back. Course, everyone still threw their cups on the floor but an underclass soon emerged that’d happily spend £200 for their festival ticket then spend all day collecting cups.

Reading and Leeds (and I’d assume most big festivals) do this.

Yup, it was Reading I first saw it at. Which made sense because the cramped festival ground always ended up looking like a landfill site

It’s a quid a cup at Twickenham matches. You can get it back if you queue up.

You see kids roaming around with stacks of discarded cups.