The thing with bottle deposits is: it really only annoys the people who generally already do the right thing anyway.
Here in the Netherlands, we expanded bottle deposits to cans and small bottles last year. A 15-25 cent deposit.
It’s causing all sorts of problems: deposit machines are breaking down in record numbers and there’s too few of them. A lot of places sell cans and bottles, but a lot of them don’t take returns. This means that it’s a giant hassle to return the cans and bottles, so a lot of people now just see it as a price increase and don’t bother with the return.
The deposit also causes MORE litter in the streets. How? Because we’ve effectively incentivised the homeless and drug addicts to break open trash bins and search for cans and bottles. They break one open, tear out the trashbag, dump the contents and take the bottles. Which attracts rats, since they leave the rest. My city now regularly looks like a garbage dump.
Meanwhile, some call it a succes because ‘there’s fewer bottles and cans on the streets’, while conveniently ignoring literally all the other trash that now gets dumped on it.
I’d honestly vote today to abolish the deposit scheme. Sounds good on paper, but in practice I’m only seeing downsides.
tal@lemmy.today 6 months ago
The “ocean’s sake”?
Glass doesn’t float. If it winds up in the ocean, one just gets beach glass.
In fact, we had a place up in California where a beach was being directly used as a dump once. The only remaining stuff, after the metal had rusted away and such, was glass, and it all got turned into beach glass. The state went from trying to stop people from dumping things on the beach to banning people hauling away the beach glass; it had become a tourist attraction.
en.wikipedia.org/…/Glass_Beach_(Fort_Bragg%2C_Cal…
wewbull@feddit.uk 6 months ago
Glass bottle recycling is about reuse. Wash the bottle and use it again.
In the UK off-licenses (liquor stores) used to partake in a scheme where they’d take your empties and give you money off your next purchase. Those bottles were then sent back to the bottling plant to be reused. It went away with the wide spread use of plastic bottles (80s).
Aas far as I’m aware, there’s no reason not to do it again except the distribution network is more centralised now, and sending stuff back is something nobody budgets for. I expect this is the “too complicated aspect”.
thehatfox@lemmy.world 6 months ago
So I’ve heard that’s the main issue with reusing glass bottles now. Drink bottling is more centralised which means higher transport costs to return them, making it uneconomical. When it used to be done here bottles would return to a more local bottling plant.
theo@lemmy.world 6 months ago
My interpretation is that by excluding glass from the scheme, this may incentivise consumers to buy plastic instead. Some of which will inevitably end up in the ocean.