Does Norway Have the Solution to the Global Plastic Bottle Obsession?
We have woken up to the horrible implications of our dependency on plastic drinks bottles. Images of them floating on mass in our seas and being washed up on the worlds beaches have shamed us into action. However, while we’re permitted to treat plastic with a zero-value status we’re likely to continue our erroneous ways. Does Norway have the answer in the form of its Environment Tax and Bottle Return scheme which has proven hugely popular and successful?
We all use them. Plastic bottles. Just think for a moment how many of these bottles that your drinking and eating habits generate in terms of use. You would hope that through your own efforts and that of restaurants, outlets, etc that the plastic we discard is recycled and doesn’t find its way into the environment. Alas, images we’ve seen on our television screens and on social media have awakened a realisation that, accidentally or deliberately, much of the plastic we use in our homes is finding its way into the environment, through our water courses and into our seas doing untold damage to the habitats of vulnerable species.
In the UK we’ve long since become aware that much of our plastic has been exported, not necessarily for recycling, but put simply – we’re using our economic advantage to dump our plastic waste in other countries and “washing our hands” of our waste and our responsibility to deal with it. It’s akin to paying an unscrupulous contractor to take away your garden waste fully in the knowledge than he or she is going to “fly tip” the waste in a country lane some miles away.
Presently, 1,000,000 plastic bottles are manufactured every minute across the globe. In the UK we use some 13 billion plastic bottles every year recycling only 43% them, with approximately 700,000 becoming litter items every day.
We know that we need to change our approach to plastic waste – but how do we go about it, and do we adopt a system of punishment or encouragement to drive users to change their habits. Norway has implemented a system of bottle recycling that could be the answer.
The Norwegian system works like this. All producers of plastic bottles used or sold in Norway must participate in the scheme. Participation in the scheme means that two tax levies are applied to every bottle or can; basic tax at 1.23 Kroner per bottle/can and Environmental Tax at 5.99 Kroner per can and 3.62 Kroner per bottle. If a retailer sells products in plastic bottles or cans they are legally obliged to collect them. This has led to the implementation of manual and automated collection points on various scales across the country – everything from ‘over the counter’ returns to automated machines in supermarkets and petrol stations and other such locations. Many locations have an automated vending system where the public can return each bottles and cans – this is known as reverse vending. Consumers (the public) are incentivised to return bottles and cans to these outlets, machines or location and they receive a reward equivalent to 10p to 25p depending on the size of the item. The receiving depot/retailer receives a deposit refund for each item, plus a handling fee per cans or plastic bottle. They also benefit from increased footfall of people using the system. All of this is largely managed through barcode labelling on the cans and bottles.
The returned cans and bottles are collected at suitable frequencies by the operator. The empty bottles and cans to the operators production facilities or to regional partners. The production facility record, process and prepare the empties for recycling. The empties are sent to recycling in compressed cubes. This is called bailing. Cans are melted into aluminium sheets used to produce new cans, or other types of aluminium products. For plastic bottles, a recycler sorts, shreds, cleans and dries the plastic bottles into plastic flakes. The plastic flakes become preforms which is purchased by plastic bottle manufacturers to be used to create more plastic bottles. The plastic bottle manufacturers agree to make the new bottles to agreed specifications which make the processing and recycling of the next generation of bottles easier and less energy intensive.
The taxation system operates in full until the industry which produces goods in plastic bottles and cans achieves a recycling level of 25% when the taxation starts to reduce, at 95% recycling levels the tax is at zero. The system has been so widely embraced that no tax has been paid since 2011.
The system is operated by Infinitim (formerly Norsk Resirk) and was founded in 1996 by two sectors collaborating – the beverage sector and the grocery sector – in response to the aforementioned taxation system. In 2014 the company rebranded as Infinitum to reflect the boundless potential in regards to the number of bottles and cans the system can recycle. The system has been embraced by the Norwegian public and is now seen as a normal part of the waste management and recycling lifestyle of the country.
After initial interest from Michael Gove then Environment Secretary and later Theresa Coffey then Environment Minister the UK has taken early steps to replicate the system. The unlikely candidate leading the way is the Welsh frozen foods retailer Iceland who has introduced “reverse vending machines” into four stores in Wolverhampton, Mold, Fulham and Musselburgh (covering England, Wales and Scotland) as well as its head office, in Deeside.
Where Norway’s system got quickly established the scheme in the UK is slow in terms of gaining traction. Other major retailers like Tesco, Morrisons and Co-op have shown interest yet bottle recycling depots and “reverse vending machines” are yet to become a common part of our street scape and in-store facilities. At the same time our waterways, roadsides and parklands continue to be strewn with plastic waste a great percentage of which is likely to find its way to our seas and oceans. Collecting waste from our roadsides is one of the most costly and dangerous forms of refuse management.
The stark difference between Norway’s results and the UK’s early outcomes is the taxation part of the equation. Since 2011 the tax collected from the Norwegian Beverage and Grocery sectors is nil. Perhaps the solution to the UK’s plastic dependency not only lays in us replicating the Infinitim collection model, but also in implementing the associated taxation measures.
Is it time for you to demand this system be implemented in the UK?
#futuregenerationsact #climateemergency #reuse #recycle