# Litter & recycling.



## emmbeedee (Oct 31, 2008)

About 20 years ago I wrote to the war-mongering Scottish idiot we had for PM at the time & suggested a bottle & can deposit scheme be introduced in the UK. We had recently returned from living in New York, which, like many US states, has a very effective deposit scheme, so I was very aware of how well these schemes worked. He got one of his flunkies to reply saying such schemes were not compatible with EU regulations or some such BullSh!t. Strange then that Germany now have such a scheme.
I have just found that a petition has been started to introduce a scheme here, so I have signed. You can find it here if you'd like to sign it too:

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petiti...its-to-stop-plastic-pollution-in-our-oceans-1

These schemes are very effective in reducing litter, in fact AFAIK the first state-wide compulsory one was introduced in Oregon after campaigning by people who were so fed up with the cans & bottles littering their highways. Recycling wasn't a major consideration back then, but of course we all now realise how important it really is. Schemes have since spread to many other states, despite intense lobbying by Coca-Cola et al against their introduction.


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

Always been deposits on bottles the 12 years we have been here and now drink cans.
We try to buy in Poland where there is no deposit and we can put empties into the recycling bin. It's a pain when travelling in countries that don't have the deposit scheme if taking the German bottles or cans, rather than carrying the empties home we put them in the bins throwing money away, 25 cents for plastic bottles and cans, 9 cent on some glass bottles, not wine or spirit bottles, they go into the bottle banks, clear, Brown or green.
In Poland there are also plastic bottle banks (cages).
Jan


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Over 20 years ago the big French supermarkets had machines that would take some glass bottles and issue you with a credit to be used at the cash desk.
Being me, I would raid the bottle banks in UK collecting many of these type bottles before our 'booze' runs to return said botts and often get €5+ credits.

Ray.


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## emmbeedee (Oct 31, 2008)

raynipper said:


> Over 20 years ago the big French supermarkets had machines that would take some glass bottles and issue you with a credit to be used at the cash desk.
> Being me, I would raid the bottle banks in UK collecting many of these type bottles before our 'booze' runs to return said botts and often get €5+ credits.
> 
> Ray.


You wouldn't get away with that in the States. We lived only one mile from the New Jersey state line & sometimes shopped there, but NJ didn't have the scheme. The cans & bottles were clearly marked with all the states that were in the scheme & if you tried to return an NJ can or bottle in NY you'd get a flea in your ear. If you tried to return one in the automatic return machines that all the supermarkets had it would be returned to you with the message "Non deposit container". The machine could read the barcode to identify that, so no chance of your little scam working there.>


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Little scam emmbeedee.?????
Just doing my civic duty and getting a couple of Shekels into the bargain.

Ray.


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## autostratus (May 9, 2005)

raynipper said:


> Over 20 years ago the big French supermarkets had machines that would take some glass bottles and issue you with a credit to be used at the cash desk.
> Being me, I would raid the bottle banks in UK collecting many of these type bottles before our 'booze' runs to return said botts and often get €5+ credits.
> 
> Ray.


Remember that system well, Ray.
I used to get into trouble from MOH every year when I was seen to be loading empty bottles into the caravan to take back to France.:wink2:
Told I was using up valuable space.
My argument was that there was space when they were full so there must be space when they are empty.


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## emmbeedee (Oct 31, 2008)

raynipper said:


> Little scam emmbeedee.?????
> Just doing my civic duty and getting a couple of Shekels into the bargain.
> 
> Ray.


When I was a lad we lived in a little village outside of Redditch. One of the village lads discovered that a pub in Redditch, the Unicorn, (long since gone), stored their empties around the back. He started collecting them from the back & taking them in the front for the deposits. I don't know how long he'd been doing it but they must have cottoned on to what he was doing. One day when collecting the empties the landlord's Alsatian took an interest & gave him a good bite. Rather disrupted that little wheeze, he didn't do it any more.:laugh:


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

Does anyone remember 1d (an old penny) refund on beer bottles, we kids used to nip round the back of the pub, take a couple of empty bottles out of the crate, go to the off licence get a refund and buy bubble gum or some such thing.


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## peribro (Sep 6, 2009)

I saw a programme recently on BBC I think it was about the merits of having a scheme similar to that in Germany for deposits on bottles. There were arguments for and against but for me the deciding factor (I am against) is that bottles and cans are only two elements of what we should be recycling. If people fail now to recycle bottles and cans then almost undoubtedly they will be failing to recycle paper, plastics, cardboard etc etc. 

The only way to really get our total level of recycling up to where it should be is to change the culture of those people who don't recycle at the moment. Yes, by having a deposit scheme then that will improve the recycling of those items but it will do nothing for the rest. Indeed one point that was made was that a deposit scheme may actually reduce the focus on recycling of other things and that recycling rates of those other things will fall.

A final point is the cost of administering a deposit scheme by all those involved - it is apparently huge.


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Ah, that was a scam. We tried that with the heavy Schwepps soda siphons at two bob a throw.

Ray.


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Some of the so called recycling schemes I see in UK where a very expensive multi compartment truck has up to 5 blokes rummaging through every box and bag checking and distributing into said various compartments and holding up the traffic for ages.

Ray.


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

JanHank said:


> Always been deposits on bottles the 12 years we have been here and now drink cans.
> We try to buy* in Poland where there is no deposit *and we can put empties into the recycling bin. It's a pain when travelling in countries that don't have the deposit scheme if taking the German bottles or cans, rather than carrying the empties home we put them in the bins throwing money away, 25 cents for plastic bottles and cans, 9 cent on some glass bottles, not wine or spirit bottles, they go into the bottle banks, clear, Brown or green.
> In Poland there are also plastic bottle banks (cages).
> Jan


I pay a deposit on Tyskie beer bottles at E.Leclerc here in Katowice - Zl 2 for 4 bottles - it was Zl 1.60 2 months ago.

Geoff


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## HermanHymer (Dec 5, 2008)

Recycling can provide a source of income for indigent people, of whom there are far too many in South Africa. You'll often see 'tramps' tottering down the road with a pile of cardboard boxes in a purloined supermarket trolley or someone will come up to your window at the traffic lights to collect your throwaways (and anything else you may or may not want to dispose of!). There will always be 'scavengers' going through the bags put out on the street on garbage collection day. Many concerned people put out re-usable stuff separately so they don't have to scratch for it in the real waste. But when you've got nothing, needs must!


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

nicholsong said:


> I pay a deposit on Tyskie beer bottles at E.Leclerc here in Katowice - Zl 2 for 4 bottles - it was Zl 1.60 2 months ago.
> 
> Geoff


Did you have a stock of Zl 1.60 to return at the Zl 2.00 > better than money in the bank.

We buy beer in tins these days (Polish), easy to squash, take up less space and weight, no return, much better in our opinion.
We have never buy bottled beer, plastic soft drink bottles don´t have a deposit, do they?
Jan


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

JanHank said:


> *Did you have a stock of Zl 1.60 to return at the Zl 2.00 *> better than money in the bank.
> 
> We buy beer in tins these days (Polish), easy to squash, take up less space and weight, no return, much better in our opinion.
> We have never buy bottled beer, plastic soft drink bottles don´t have a deposit, do they?
> Jan


They on guard against 'little minx' tricks like that - you have to have their till receipt showing the deposit charged.

We also take cans in the MH, but carrying 4 bottles of beer from the S/Market 50m across the road is still within my lifting capacity:laugh:


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

The vast majority of the litter around our village is drinks cans. It seems it must be cool to drive around with you mate drinking cans of Woodpecker and for them to just fling them out of the window when finished. I am in favour of anything that will save me from collecting them all on my daily dog walk. 


New people to the village are giving me strange looks as I walk down the road with a beer can in my hand at 9am


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