refundable bottles

[santaman2000]

It would certainly put the focus where it belongs BR.

 

[capt.dunc]

in scotland we still have a 30p return on barr's pop bottles, however people still chuck them and i can't even remember the last time i saw a homeless person collecting them from the streets. as for the brown ale bottles they are no longer returnable, it comes down to costs as always. the old brown ale bottles were marked on the glass as returnable (7p when i was a student) and we used to return them to the off licence, we also used the bottles for home brew. the modern bottles are no good to reuse because they're not as strong. a larger percentage of mixed quality glass is used in making them, which is cheaper, because many glassworks deal with recycling. and also because the bottles are made to be lighter, which in turn makes them cheaper to transport. both of these reasons are good from an ecological stand point, but cost is the real driver. sadly a lot of recycling is cost driven, councils favour large weight ("we recycle x many tons a year, so we're the best council and we're doing our bit") and good economic return items (glass, then wood and paper) metals are becoming better but plastic is the one i wish they'd take on board (lightweight, bulky, requires loads of sorting and not all reusable).
attitudes are changing and companies are doing more to limit plastic, but it'll take another generation. as for idiots throwing their rubbish anywhere, sadly it'll still be with us in a hundred years, but hopefully there'll be more folk happy to pick up behind them so the world will seem nicer.

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

Of course we can get rid of it - but we are too bleeding heart about it. Full time litter picking in an orange jumpsuit for both weekend days for 12 months for a first offense. That would cut it down I suspect.

This is a very good point. Out justice system seems to use community service as a primary punishment for many crimes and yet i cant ever recall seeing anyone undertaking it in an obvious way. Dressing them in Orange hi vis would not only show the community we are getting something back from people who break the law but also make the offenders visible which will add a sense of shame to undertaking the work. For young offenders you could also focus clean up work on rural areas / public parks and it might even inspire some love of the environment and instill some peace in their minds.

 

[oldtimer]

Collecting the money back on old pop bottles was the main source of pocket money when I was a child. I remember from my early forays in France how empty wine bottles were collected in the shops by a machine that gave you a discount voucher to claim at the checkout. I used to take my 5litre bidon to the wine shop in France to be refilled, but now they sell the stuff in a wine box that has to be put in the recycling bin. Most people just dump them in the landfill bin.
I find the above comments on re-cycling very interesting in terms of energy conservation: such a lot I didn't realise about the relationship between energy and re-use.
I still think we over-use packaging in Europe, but I think thinks are improving. Less packaging = less litter. Some people seem to think we have street sweepers in the countryside.

 

[superc0ntra]

In Sweden somewhere between 95% and 99% depending on type of all bottles and cans are recycled.
It's dropped a bit since there is a lot of import of beer cans from Germany and there is no refund on those.

 

[oldtimer]

This is a very good point. Out justice system seems to use community service as a primary punishment for many crimes and yet i cant ever recall seeing anyone undertaking it in an obvious way. Dressing them in Orange hi vis would not only show the community we are getting something back from people who break the law but also make the offenders visible which will add a sense of shame to undertaking the work. For young offenders you could also focus clean up work on rural areas / public parks and it might even inspire some love of the environment and instill some peace in their minds.

When I was a Headteacher, I instituted litterpicking as a punishment. Pupils were issued with a special litter picking tool and a plastic bag which they had to fill. A few weeks into the scheme it became clear that the little so and sos enjoyed the activity. By the end of the term, litter-picking had become a reward for good behaviour. Moral: " Be careful what you wish for".

 

[atraildreamer]

It would indeed reduce the visible liiter. The problem arises when you consider the energy (fuel) used to collect, wash, and prepare the bottles for re-use. That type of recycling actually has a bigger carbon footprint than making new ones. And that's before you consider the chemical polution from the soaps used.

Over here in the states, we have recycling machines that you place the bottles, or aluminum cans, into. The machine scans the bar code on the container to verify if it is returnable, and determines the amount of deposit to be refunded.The container is then chopped into small pieces about the size of an American dime coin. The material is bagged and is ready to be used to make new containers. When you are done with scanning the containers, a receipt is printed out that you present to the store, who then gives you the amount of $$$ listed on the receipt.

 

[Joonsy]

Collecting the money back on old pop bottles was the main source of pocket money when I was a child.

me too, pop used to be delivered to your door in those days (by corona) and i used to return my dads beer bottles to the off licence which was usually a hatch in the wall of the pub.

When I was a Headteacher, I instituted litterpicking as a punishment. Pupils were issued with a special litter picking tool and a plastic bag which they had to fill. A few weeks into the scheme it became clear that the little so and sos enjoyed the activity. By the end of the term, litter-picking had become a reward for good behaviour. Moral: " Be careful what you wish for".

at my school we had to do ''litter duty'', everybody in the class had to do it by rota, it wasn't a punishnent at my school everybody had to take their turn, we patrolled the schoolground filling bin bags with any litter we found, we didn't resent it and made a game out of it.

 

[santaman2000]

Over here in the states, we have recycling machines that you place the bottles, or aluminum cans, into. The machine scans the bar code on the container to verify if it is returnable, and determines the amount of deposit to be refunded.The container is then chopped into small pieces about the size of an American dime coin. The material is bagged and is ready to be used to make new containers. When you are done with scanning the containers, a receipt is printed out that you present to the store, who then gives you the amount of $$$ listed on the receipt.

Have a look at my address; I'm in the States. And no, that's only less than half the chain of custody. Those materials still have to be transposrted TO that collection point and FROM it to the true recyling center where even more fuel is used in the repurposinf process. I used to be in charge of the squadron recyling efforts at when on active duty. What's advertised is only a fraction of the cost of recycling; And thost "costs" are directly related to fuel used and thus to the carbon footprint.

And No. There are no such machines in Florida. Everything has to be hand sorted.

 

[Jared]

Still use a milkman so glass milk/fruit juice bottles get returned.
Also think the local soft drink still does 1L glass bottles than can be returned, http://www.lowessoftdrinks.co.uk/glass_1ltr.html

Certainly I think we're not paying the real cost for some packaging, and there should be a higher cost for it, to dissuade companies from using it.