MIKE HEDGES AM ASKS MINISTER TO CONSIDER USING BOTTLE
DEPOSIT SCHEME TO ENCOURAGE REUSE OF PLASTIC BOTTLES
Speaking after Questions to
the Welsh Government Environment Minister Hanna Bleddyn, Mike Hedges AM said…. ‘When
I was a child everyone took pop bottles back to the shop because of the 5p or
later 10p return on the bottle – the bottle had value – as I said in my
question, people feel plastic bottles have no value so therefore they are more
likely to throw them away. It is time to bring back the deposit on a bottle so
there is an extra incentive to encourage reuse of the bottle – it worked in the
past and I sure it will be a success again’
Mike Hedges
AM - Since devolution, there has been an increase in our municipal recycling
rate from 5 per cent to 64 per cent, which is phenomenal. It's driven by
policy, but can I say, it's driven more by landfill tax, so it has put pressure
on local authorities to ensure that they do recycle?349
Recycling
is, of course, only one of the three Rs to reduce waste into landfill. The
others are 'reduce' and 'reuse' and I believe the other two are more important.
Which is environmentally the better: use one plastic bottle 10 times or recycle
10 plastic bottles? The latter improves recycling rates. I would suggest
that the former was environmentally much better, and I think that is an
important point.350
Those who
create their own compost do not count against recycling, although, obviously,
they're recycling and they're cutting down on the amount of energy used to move
things to be recycled. I speak as someone who is very much in favour of not
just a deposit-return scheme, but one where you actually reuse the bottles
afterwards. Those of us from the Corona pop age group will be well aware of
taking a bottle back and getting 5p or 10p—it worked. I think it is
important that—. Plastic, too often, has no value, and that's why people are
quite happy to throw it away. You wander around football grounds and other
parks and you'll see plastic bottles being thrown because they're of no value.
I think that we need a deposit-return scheme.351
I also
think that we ought to bring in some form of tax to level the playing field between
glass and plastic. When I went to buy a bottle of vinegar a few weeks ago and
it came in a plastic bottle, I was somewhere between amazed and surprised. The
question is: should we be measuring recycling, or should we be measuring
residual waste for incineration and landfill? Isn't that a better indication of
how well we're doing? And would the Minister agree that that would be a better
measure of environmental success, because otherwise we're penalising the
reusers and we're penalising the reducers?352
17:05
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Hanna
Blethyn AM - I thank Mike Hedges for his
contribution and the insight into different vinegar bottles in the local
supermarket. You raise a very important point with that anecdote as well, and
the importance of the three Rs in the waste hierarchy. Recycling is at one end,
and we've got reduce and reuse before that, which is why the emphasis on a
circular economy is so important, and the number of reuse
organisations that we're supporting is expanding across Wales. You
referred back to the days of Corona pop. I think I'm just about old enough
to remember it, although I don't think it's the right public health message
when I said I was allowed to keep the change to buy a 10p pick-and-mix bag in
the shop. But you said about the DRS and the opportunities, potentially, there
to incentivise people to collect bottles, or that you hear tales from elsewhere
in Europe where they have got DRS, where enterprising young people,
particularly after large major events, go and collect the bottles and then
return them to wherever the product return facility is, and get the tokens or
the receipts back for it. So, the Member raises very important and valid
contributions, which I'm sure will be considered.
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