GOM
living vicariously
We can no doubt learn from all over the world about many things, lets not restrict this to the small pool that is over le channel.
Got something to say or just want fewer pesky ads? Join us... 😊
[News] Return deposit on bottles.
- Thread starter KVLT
- Start date
We can no doubt learn from all over the world about many things, lets not restrict this to the small pool that is over le channel.
Really like what they do at Sussex Cricket ground; you pay a £1 deposit on a beer for the plastic "glass" it comes in. Take it back and get your £1 returned. At end of cricket match there are hordes of kids going around collecting them up to earn some cash. Pretty easy for the kids to get £20+ each and keeps waste levels and staff time down. Glasses all then get cleaned for next time.
Pavilionaire
Well-known member
- Jul 7, 2003
- 30,557
Maybe we see kids in the bushes up and down the A27 they will make a fortune.
I thought the Environment Minster was Michael Gove, not Jimmy Savile.
pearl
Well-known member
- Thread starter
- #46
Ha, not just kids, some adults too......ahem......
Sorrel
Well-known member
Glad to see this happening. When I lived in the Nordic countries this was just standard normal behaviour and seemed to work fine; it can work well here, too.
Mackenzie
Old Brightonian
It works really well in Germany, surprised it’s taken as long as this to reach us in the UK.
No inconvenience and it’s quite good fun seeing the bottles disappearing into the machine, although I am very easily pleased like that.
No inconvenience and it’s quite good fun seeing the bottles disappearing into the machine, although I am very easily pleased like that.
Super Steve Earle
Well-known member
If the builders of my house are anything to go by, the builders use the bottles to pee in rather than use the new toilets in the houses they build. Found one hidden in the loft and one under the shower. Half full!
vegster
Sanity Clause
- May 5, 2008
- 27,884
What's happened to the Tories ? for years all we have had is penury, cuts and downright bullshit about how they are funding this that and the other when it's patently obvious that they are not, then finally they wake up and, offer a pay increase to NHS staff, admit the NHS needs more money, Start a huge programme of training more Midwives and now something sensible like a deposit on cans cartons and bottles.....has Theresa May been abducted by aliens and re-programmed ?
spongy
Well-known member
The problem in all of this is because it's plastic. I'm currently studying an HNC in manufacturing engineering and I'm researching "plastics" or "polymers" in the materials unit.
Plastics are horrible. There's two types. Thermoplastic and thermoset. Thermoset can't be recycled. Stuff like butter tubs and bakelite. Thermoplastic can but only up to 3 maybe 4 times. Then it's just discarded. Recycled plastic although functional isn't considered good enough for the large manufacturers. Now I know what happens I can see the difference in a few things compared to products made from "virgin" plastic.
Plastic is the most versatile material we have. After metals and alloys. Scientists are always inventing new metals and plastics with different properties that didn't exist before. Then engineers have to figure out ways to use them. (Smart materials are brilliant and evolving in ways you wouldn't even know, have a google).
Plastics take forever to break down. If at all. But the problem is that it's such a versatile and cheap material to form that big companies will continue to use it.
If you can find an alternative material to use instead of plastic that is cheaper to use, easier to use AND environmentally friendly that can replace it in all its uses then you will be the richest person in the world. Forever
Plastics are horrible. There's two types. Thermoplastic and thermoset. Thermoset can't be recycled. Stuff like butter tubs and bakelite. Thermoplastic can but only up to 3 maybe 4 times. Then it's just discarded. Recycled plastic although functional isn't considered good enough for the large manufacturers. Now I know what happens I can see the difference in a few things compared to products made from "virgin" plastic.
Plastic is the most versatile material we have. After metals and alloys. Scientists are always inventing new metals and plastics with different properties that didn't exist before. Then engineers have to figure out ways to use them. (Smart materials are brilliant and evolving in ways you wouldn't even know, have a google).
Plastics take forever to break down. If at all. But the problem is that it's such a versatile and cheap material to form that big companies will continue to use it.
If you can find an alternative material to use instead of plastic that is cheaper to use, easier to use AND environmentally friendly that can replace it in all its uses then you will be the richest person in the world. Forever
Sorrel
Well-known member
One of the major problems with it is this part. It just gets smaller, but - unlike most other materials - it is not attacked by microbes or atmospheric conditions and so just continues to exist in increasingly small pieces. My guess is that in 100 years or so microscopic plastic will be considered one the most important problems facing the world.
What matters with a replacement substance is biodegradability. There probably is not a single substance but a whole line of them to replace current plastic use. I know there have been useful work on fungoid material, but it is very hard to produce in the quantities required.
In my house we've been looking for replacement material for wrapping around lunches and to try and stop using cling-film/sandwich bags. It's not straightforward to find.
spongy
Well-known member
Yes it is getting smaller. The bonds are being refined so much that is was added to make up as a foundation. Recently the government banned microbeads in make up. The problem is that microbeads technology was so small that it is isn't visible to the naked eye so no-one can see the issue. Just think how much of this stuff is in the water table that we can't see!
Personally I don't use cling film or similar. I've always been an aluminium foil bloke.
Just reading this thread and looking around my front room it's staggering just how much plastic there is that doesn't biodegrade in everything I own. From the phone I'm holding. To the remote for the tv. Our tv unit is made of wood but there's plastic screw caps in it. The soles of my slippers. The nylon in my socks. The material in our sofa cushions. To stuff you can't see like electric wire insulation hidden in walls. The dials on our cooker....
None of this shit really degrades in the environment enough to say it doesn't pollute it.
I think until we find an alternative polymers will ruin the world's ecosystems quicker than climate change.
Personally I don't use cling film or similar. I've always been an aluminium foil bloke.
Just reading this thread and looking around my front room it's staggering just how much plastic there is that doesn't biodegrade in everything I own. From the phone I'm holding. To the remote for the tv. Our tv unit is made of wood but there's plastic screw caps in it. The soles of my slippers. The nylon in my socks. The material in our sofa cushions. To stuff you can't see like electric wire insulation hidden in walls. The dials on our cooker....
None of this shit really degrades in the environment enough to say it doesn't pollute it.
I think until we find an alternative polymers will ruin the world's ecosystems quicker than climate change.
BrickTamland
Well-known member
Works really well here in Sweden. Recycling culture is huge here.
It's not that it's taken so long to reach us. We had a proper 'take back your bottles' system for many decades, so it's basically re-starting what we had (although the plastic elemnt is a step forward)
Last bottles I remember taking back for a refund were Newcastle Brown's in Durham back in c1994 (apart from my daily milk bottle) - the good thing about them were that they were re-used rather than recycled, which cuts out loads more energy usage.
Mackenzie
Old Brightonian
Glass bottles.
These returns are for plastic, but I guess the principal is the same. I’m not sure when recycling of plastic bottles came about in Germany, but I thought it was a really good idea when we saw it. It’s at least three years ago, maybe more.
Last edited:
dolphins
Well-known member
Another vote for this - have used it a lot in Finland and it works a treat. You don't see discarded cans or bottles anywhere...or not for long, anyway!
I’m struggling to understand any of the negativity about this. It works perfectly in many other nations so why is it such a cost-prohibitive idea which few will take up in the U.K.?