Cash for your Empties?

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People in the UK may be unfamiliar with this concept and the idea of a 'bottlebill'.

A bottlebill is a law which requires retailers to take a deposit for beer or soft drink bottles which is then refunded when the empties are returned to encourage a high rate of recycling.

The idea started back in the 50's and was aimed at reducing costs for companies by producing less bottles and also to reduce the amount of rubbish in the waste stream.

Many US states and various European countries use this system but it doesn't ever seem to have been implemented as a recycling method in the UK. Would it work if introduced? Would you take back your empties for cash?

For more infomation on bottlebills, take a look at www.bottlebill.org.


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#3 I've just come back from Finland and nearly all supermarkets have the facility to return bottles and cans. You get a receipt when finished and you can exchange this for cash or have it deducted from your shopping bill. I think it would really make people recycle more. I have a friend who just throws it all in the bin, i'm sure if she was going to get some money back she'd recycle everything!!!
Posted by Sherrie Hayday on 10/07/2006 at 16:20
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#2 The system works very well in Germany and a number of other European countries. There are standardised bottles for beer, fruit juice and water, which are used by different producers. The principal beer bottle type is also used throughout Central Europe. Shops have an automatic machine which spits out the deposit in exchange for the bottles.

Although it would take some organising, the same thing could be done in the UK, in which case the adoption of the German sizes would save reinventing wheels and allow reuse of imported bottles.
Posted by Jonathan Miles on 19/05/2006 at 13:57
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#1 As a child we always took our empties back, milk bottles were left out for the milkman, R.Whites Lemondade bottles used to have 1 shilling/5 pence refund on return. .... Then it all stopped. The last thing I took back for a deposit was a few years ago as a mature student was a bottle of Newcastle Brown!

Also as a child I got to spend the 5p. (I think it may need a higher deposit these days...) Why shouldn't we put ourselves out again to do this? I'd do again, save stopping at the recyling point especially if could be done at entrance to supermarket at Customer Service desk!
Posted by Miss Eddie Fisher on 14/04/2006 at 23:24
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