Here’s a question – at what rate do you think plastic bottles are sold in the United Kingdom? The answer…believe it or not, this one nation alone sees 400 plastic bottles fly off the shelves in one form or another, every single second of every single day. On a global basis, more than one million plastic bottles are bought every single minute.
But what’s even more astonishing is that in both instances, these figures are accelerating at record-pace.
Contrary to popular belief, the United Kingdom isn’t doing nearly as well as many of its neighbouring countries when it comes to the annual recycling rates. In particular, our track record when it comes to plastic recycling is a little on the woeful side. As such, campaigners and opposition parties are now calling on ministers to consider radical new schemes to tackle the problem.
One of which being a similar scheme to those that apply to certain glass bottles and cans – money-back in return for handing plastic bottles over for reuse or recycling.
And it would certainly appear that the initiative has potential, given the way in which soft drink giant Coca-Cola has already said that it would actively support such a scheme.
“Earlier this year, Coca-Cola said to the Scottish parliament they would back a well-designed deposit return scheme,” said Kate Parminter, environment spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats.
“Now that industry are backing this scheme, it is high time the UK government began to throw their weight behind it.”
Mirroring the same sentiments, Labour’s shadow environment secretary Sue Hayman likewise stated that the time has come for action to be taken by the government.
“A deposit return scheme would have widespread public support and would go a long way to ensuring that we recycle as much of our waste as possible,” she said.
A recent report found that if things continue along their current trajectory, the number of plastic bottles sold every minute by the year 2021 will increase by another 20%. However, campaigners believe that if deposit return schemes for plastic bottles were implemented in the United Kingdom, the result could be at least 4 million bottles prevented from littering the country’s streets and waterways each and every week.
What’s more, similar schemes have already been adopted in a variety of countries including Australia and Germany – most of which have been even more successful than originally expected.
Speaking on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, a spokesperson stated that progress to date has been reassuring.
“We have made great progress in boosting recycling rates for plastic bottles, with their collection for recycling rising from less than 13,000 tonnes in 2000 to over 330,000 tonnes in 2015,” the spokesman said.
“We are considering further the practical ways in which we can deal with the worst kinds of litter, including plastic bottles.”
Nevertheless, MP for Brighton Pavilion, Caroline Lucas, stated that the government has an urgent responsibility to increase its efforts.
“The government is under growing pressure to take action on the plastic bottle crisis,” she said.
“With such a slender majority in the House of Commons, and with the public swinging behind the campaign against plastic waste, there is a real chance that ministers will consider introducing a bottle deposit scheme.”
