Wednesday 7 February 2018

UK considering implementing Norway’s bottle recycling scheme?

A deposit-based system for recycling bottles in Norway could be implemented in the UK.

The Norwegian Government has put a tax on every bottle that isn’t recycled – consumers pay a deposit on the bottle depending on size, return the empty bottle into a machine which reads the barcode and produces a coupon for the deposit.

The BBC reports a ministerial delegation has been to Norway to see if the UK should implement the same scheme, which is said to have significantly reduced plastic waste.

Similar schemes are in operation in other Scandinavian countries and some states in the US and Canada.

Last year, Environment Secretary Michael Gove said the government is considering whether to introduce a “reward and return” scheme for plastic bottles in a bid to tackle pollution.

The Environmental Audit Committee highlighted the need for the initiative to boost recycling rates as they have stalled for the last five years.