Plastic bottles getting paid (refunded) to recycle

[pontipinemum]

I haven't seen much in the media/ or on SM about the new plastic bottle recycling scheme coming in.

I was just wondering what do people think? I think it'll be great. Apparently we only recycle 33% of plastic which is awful!

I recycle in Cavan and the bottle banks there have plastic banks already which is so helpful and I would think encourage people to recycle as it means less in the recycling bin. That's the only county I have seen that take plastic though and I've lived in a few counties.

Like in fairness our grandparents used to return the glass milk bottles so it's just coming back, not a new concept

I thought it had been delayed again until 2026 (if it happens at all?)

I lived in the Netherlands 20 years ago and this was a thing there back then. Larger 2l bottles you paid a 25c deposit and then scanned them into a machine at entrance and they printed you a ticket. You could get cash or just use it on your shopping. The bottles were sanitised and reused/ recycled.

I think there has been a failure to invest here as up till recently it’s been really cheap to package up waste and send it abroad.

If you mean the Deposit Return Scheme, it's been delayed. https://depositreturnscheme.zerowastescotland.org.uk/

I totally agree with you that less plastic is a good thing, but this scheme sounds like a total PITA. You pay an extra 20p per bottle (so on a multipack of 10 bottles you'd pay an extra £2) and then have to return the bottles to a collection point, scan the barcodes (individually) and get a voucher/credit note of some sort with your refund on it. The bottles will then go to the exact same recycling plant as they do now when you put them out with your kerbside recycling. Except that now all you have to do is leave your bottles outside to be collected, and in the new scheme you have to schlep them off to a collection point and faff about depositing them.

A very high % of recyclable waste is already recycled domestically, so this is just an almighty palaver. I don't think it will make any difference to bottles bought individually on the go, as people will just pay the 20p and put them in a bin. I can't see people keeping hold of single bottles to take to a collection point.

And the cost to implement all this will be borne by drinks manufacturers/retailers, so the money for that will have to come from somewhere... On top of the 20p (refundable), expect price hikes to fund the cost of the scheme in the first place.

It's due to apply to all single use drinks vessels (not glass any more, that was taken out), so cans as well as bottles. So a 24 pack of beer/coke cans is now going to cost £4.80 more. And you'll need to save them up (remembering not to crush them, so the bar codes are still scannable for return) and cart them all back to the shop and scan them one at a time... All for them to end up exactly where they end up now - in a council recycling plant.

(Can you tell I'm not a fan!)

In Norway the supermarkets have deposit return machines (they look a bit like ATMs) at the entrance where plastic bottles and cans are deposited and a payment made. It works well.

@TheTripThatWasnt sorry, I should have been more specific this is in Ireland, it is coming in, in February. I I posted in craicnet.

But I think even individual bottles will be more likely to be recycled properly because people that need the money will collect the bottles. I have seen it happen in other countries

That's the first place I saw them when I went to stay with a friend nearly 20 years ago.

I live in forrin and this is standard.
it's a great chore (& tuck money) for kids.
mainly drinks bottles, but some shops also have a scheme for glass bothles/jars.

sometimes (lazy) people leave bottles by the bins and other people have it as hobby to collect and return those.

Ah - my apologies. I didn't clock the board it was on, sorry.

No knowing anything about how recycling is collected/organised (or the scheme itself) in Ireland, my comments may be completely irrelevant!

Do you still have to pay a (relatively speaking) big deposit on the bottles? And what is the general sentiment towards having to take them to be recycled yourself? (vs kerbside collections)

I think you're right in that there will be an element of people going round collecting bottles, but the mindset of the people who buy them won't change considerably - people will still bin single bottles when out in public.

The really annoying thing about it is that plastic packaging is not the biggest environmental issue out there - food waste has a far bigger impact on the environment, but much less is done about it.

We were used to it living in Germany... different bottles in different machines. It doesn't take long.

It was the "etiquette" if you weren't bothered to leave them in a bag next to your recycling and someone else would collect them! Or you could do the return and put the deposit ticket in a charity box.

@TheTripThatWasnt it sounds exactly the same. Bottles up to 500ml will have a 15c deposit on them, bigger ones have a 25c deposit. Same on cans I think.

The plastic bag levy was introduced in 2000 and has worked really well, even if it took a while for people to get used to it. I think eventually people will start to think about where their single plastic bottle goes.

Food waste is such a difficult one to combat. I was reading something about encouraging restaurants to reduce portion sizes or maybe offer varied sizes. A lot of pub/restaurants in Ireland serve huge dinners.

@PuttingDownRoots I was talking to MIL about this the other day and we both thought it wouldn't be very long before charities start looking for them. Which would be good too.

I think plastic bags are a bit different (and agree it was an excellent move, and tonnes of plastic have been taken out of the supply chain).

With the bottle thing, people who currently recycle all the plastic bottles are being penalised (assuming you have council kerbside collections). Whereas now you just put your plastic out and it gets taken to the plant, in future you'll have to remember to keep it separate from your other waste/recycling, remember to keep it all intact, put it in the car, spend time at the machine feeding it all in, then claim your refund back. And the plastic goes to the same place as if you'd left it out to be collected.

It will be interesting to see if the increased cost puts people off buying plastic in the first place though. I have a colleague who buys multipacks of 330ml bottles of water for her kids to take to school. No way she's seeing the 20p per bottle back in her purse! An extra £4.80 cost on top of the current cost might make her/the kids think twice perhaps. And they might just start using a refillable water bottle with perfectly drinkable tap water. If the scheme brings about those kinds of changes, then that's a good thing.

I saw this yesterday for the first time walking into Lidl and think it is a great incentive.

It’s a huge amount of extra hassle for household bottles/cans. I have a general waste bin, recycling bin, compost bin and a container I collect glass in. This is yet another bin when this waste was going into the recycling bin. When out and about more and more places are starting to separate out bins too so when in a shopping centre it’s possible to put an empty can in a recycling bin. More of that would help increase recycling numbers, but I guess there isn’t money to be made doing it that way.
when I was in USA years ago the homeless used to look through bins for cans so they could make money from it.

@TheTripThatWasnt I do agree that it is penalising people that already correctly recycle (me!) we don't seem to have a "re-turn" station in my little town yet. They are all attached to larger supermarkets. My closest one is the Lidl about a 15/20min drive away. But I think most people will be much closer to one, I live on a farm! I do go there once a month or so. We have kerb side collections, but in Ireland we pay for bins separately depending on where you live it's either a subscription or a per collection fee, so it will reduce the cost of your recycling bin.

I think it might make people re-think that sort of huge waste your colleague is creating. My mam was terrible, in fairness her tap water isn't great. But I found in the co-op an extra large flat box of mineral water (much cheaper per ml) and bought her a reusable bottle. Until the price of them exploded about 2 years ago, (also she couldn't find them) she pretty much used the 500ml bottles exclusively. She now buys 5ltr bottles and refills her own bottle, or refills at the filter tap at work.

@Crunchingleaf those bins in the shopping centre are a good idea but I don't think people use them correctly at all.

It's coming in in a couple of months. The Lidl and Aldi I shop in have installed the machines where people will put the bottles in and get their vouchers and are waiting to commission them. Presumably the other supermarkets are in the same state. No good to me unless they take milk and cream bottles, I can go from year to year without buying bottled water.

Though when I get a dog and resume my early morning walks in the lakeside park, my customary litter-pick might turn a profit. I used to resent taking strangers' recyclables back to my own bin (and paying to them to be collected) but didn't feel right about putting them in the general litter bin. Mondays after bank holidays had the richest pickings . . .

@DeanElderberry I've heard that Tesco will also have them. We only have a tiny supervalu in my town so I can't see us getting one for a while.

I'm not really sure what they will/ won't take yet. I don't buy a lot of single bottles of 7-up etc but I did buy 2 big boxes of cans of soft drinks for Christmas I think they would all have the levy on them too.

I hate hate hate that people litter. I live on a tiny road, it's 1 lane with grass down the middle. We get cans of beer thrown in the hedges, there is an old grave yard at the end of our road which can be a bit of haunt for teenagers.

I'm not really sure what they will/ won't take yet. I don't buy a lot of single bottles of 7-up etc but I did buy 2 big boxes of cans of soft drinks for Christmas I think they would all have the levy on them too.

in germany/netherlands/denmark (and probably others) it doesn't matter where you buy from. any shop that sells bottled drinks has to take empties and pay the deposit.

A similar scheme was introduced in South Australia way back in 1977, for drink containers. I very rarely see them as litter around as they get collected by people looking to make some money.

Once every few months I'll take all the plastic and glass bottles and cans to a recycling centre, I usually get $20-$30 back.

Our SuperValu has had the machine installed now for months. I've told DD it can be her job so she can keep the money

This is due to come in in the UK in Oct 2025, although it has been delayed several times already. It should discourage consumers from buying single use containers in a lot of scenarios, due to cost and hassle factor. Eg if I buy these and continue to recycle at home as I do now I will be paying 20p more per item. I barely go to supermarkets in a planned way so I doubt I will take empties there to recycle to get the money back, I’d rather reduce my usage. Although theoretically online supermarket deliveries will have to take them back, on the basis that they sold them in the first place.

Producers will def be incentivised to use less of these materials or come up with more sustainable solutions eg paper bottles, tetrapaks.

@greenacrylicpaint even the likes of a small corner shop? Do they take the plastic milk bottles? That is what my MIL is wondering. All we know is that the need to have a 're-turn' logo on it. I am guessing we will mimic exactly what other countries do though

@OrderOfTheKookaburra I noticed that, I spent about 3 weeks in S.A on my travel. I learnt if I say people looking for the plastic bottles to hand them to them or leave them beside the bin. So it even had tourists who before going knew nothing about the scheme, following it when there. I mostly lived in W.A. and QLD where they didn't do that.

@SparkyBlue oh great, hopefully our little supervalu gets one. I'd guess they will be all over the country in a year or so they are just rolling them out in the bigger towns first. I said that to DH, when DS is older that can be 1 of his jobs. Altho I'll still have to take him to town!

@ScandiNoirNuit I do all my shopping online, Tesco having the recycling things at their shops will prob cover them I can't imagine they will take the plastic bottles off me. Although it would be handy!!