Tax on plastic bottles

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wildlifemad
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Tax on plastic bottles

Post by wildlifemad »

What do you folks think about the proposed tax on plastic bottles? I remember as a child taking the Corona bottle back to the off licence for I think 1p. I am all in favour of the whole idea if it encourages more people to recycle but not sure how it will get managed in reality. There seems to be so many more bottles than years ago when it was done on the glass. Also how would it work for old people, I'm thinking of my Mum in law who has bottled water ( nothing wrong with tap water imo but she won't drink it!!) I do all her shopping for her & carers go in to her 3 times a day so not sure how that would work out. It would also mean a lot less going into kerbside collection bins so would the council then offer a wider range of items we could recycle, although to be fair our council is very good with the range we can put out.
Many things to think about but lets hope a good solution is found soon.
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kitla
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Re: Tax on plastic bottles

Post by kitla »

maybe it will encourage people that are hard up to collect plastic litter & recycle it for cash (though not sure it will work like that). I was shocked to hear that most bottled water has minute pieces of plastic floating around in it - which we consume!
Going slightly off topic, on the radio they were discussing artificial fabrics & the amount of nylon/plastic fibres that get into the sea/rivers/environment when we wash them. I hadnt even thought about that! A whole other discussion there though.
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Mo
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Re: Tax on plastic bottles

Post by Mo »

The latest debate seems to be - would councils lose money from selling containers for recycling or save money by not having to collect it.
I wonder if it will lead to less being recycled, if some people can't even bother to put stuff in the right bin will they take it to collecting points?
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Mo
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Re: Tax on plastic bottles

Post by Mo »

I've seen someone pay for loads of plastic bags, even put big items in one, so the cash doesn't deter everyone. And it's not something you can take or not take, like a bag, you have to have the container, then remember to do something about it.
Council collections are the best option and this may stop them.
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Meanqueen
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Re: Tax on plastic bottles

Post by Meanqueen »

On my recent long walk I was appalled at the amount of litter strewn in the hedgerows, and everywhere. Every step of the way I saw litter, mainly fast food wrappings, drinks bottles, glass and plastic, cans. Quiet country lanes where hardly anyone ever walks, so it must have been thrown out of car windows, or blown off refuse lorries. Railway embankments are full of rubbish, and so are motorway slip roads.

Something needs to be done. I think the councils don't pick it up because they wouldn't have the facilities to deal with such vast amounts. In a couple of months the vegetation will be growing to cover it all so it will be forgotten about till next Autumn when it all starts dying back again.

I'm trying to remember what we did before plastic bottled drinks were invented. Nobody walked around carrying a drink. We all drank at home. We bought ribena and orange in glass bottles and diluted it in a glass. We had a drink when we visited relatives, or sat down in a cafe and had a drink in a glass or cup. I have a few plastic bottles in my cupboard which I use over and over again if I am out, trying not to buy more new ones.

Yes, put a tax on the price of a bottle of pop, double the cost, and perhaps people will get themselves more organized.

Ilona
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wendy
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Re: Tax on plastic bottles

Post by wendy »

Yes it is all appalling and I am not surprised Ilona., at what you saw sadly.
Making people pay for the plastic will , hopefully, make them think twice about dropping it. So it has to be an amount to make them think twice.
I may be wrong, but I don't think the dropping of litter comes, in the main, from the older generation. But youngsters not thinking. But it is for them the planet needs to be cleared up.
What makes me the maddest...is I have to, by law, pick the poop from my dog and rightly so too. But I pick up a biodegradable product, that will be gone within a month, pushing aside the plastic bottles, that are not degradable, to do so. That will last for hundreds of years
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Spreckly
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Re: Tax on plastic bottles

Post by Spreckly »

Good point re dog poo Wendy.
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Richard
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Re: Tax on plastic bottles

Post by Richard »

For me, it's that we are just custodians 'passing through' this Planet and I'm sure it is many peoples wishes to leave it better than when we came into it.

The thing is that much of us not doing so will be down to the total irresponsibility of the few who only think about their own selfish need and no thought to all the other creatures we share the Planet with.

Harm the creatures, we are one as well !!

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lancashire lass
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Re: Tax on plastic bottles

Post by lancashire lass »

wildlifemad wrote:I remember as a child taking the Corona bottle back to the off licence for I think 1p.


Back then, a penny had more worth than its equivalent value does today - I didn't get pocket money (I earned it by doing jobs - not quite "chores" - such as mowing the lawn, washing the car, as well as the occasional babysitting and a little cleaning work after school for a neighbour such as letting the dog out/giving it the odd flea bath, hoovering, dusting, washing up, starting the dinner before they got home) So anything to add to my savings was an opportunity. And what I spent it on was not on throwaway junk. I'm sure there are children out there who genuinely want to be part of something that is helpful, but I feel many have not had the experience of "recycling" like we did out of necessity (we were not living in poverty but every little bit was a bonus)

From a personal view, I'd rather not go down the glass bottle route again - too many memories of broken glass litter on paving and countryside or used as missiles thrown at cars and houses by children / teenagers ....

kitla wrote:Going slightly off topic, on the radio they were discussing artificial fabrics & the amount of nylon/plastic fibres that get into the sea/rivers/environment when we wash them. I hadnt even thought about that! A whole other discussion there though.


another source of small plastic is from the micro beads that are incorporated into shampoos and many cleaning products

Mo wrote:I wonder if it will lead to less being recycled, if some people can't even bother to put stuff in the right bin


I don't think it's so much can't be bothered, but the list of what can or cannot go in can be either too complicated (this kind of plastic is okay, this one not and some councils have different rules to others) or anything that contained food needs to be washed .... for busy people, it's just easier rather than being typically lazy to dump stuff in the general waste than faff around organizing the recycled waste. Maybe it would help if the plastic that cannot be recycled was taken out of use and not allowed in packaging anymore.

Meanqueen wrote:On my recent long walk I was appalled at the amount of litter strewn in the hedgerows, and everywhere. Every step of the way I saw litter, mainly fast food wrappings, drinks bottles, glass and plastic, cans. Quiet country lanes where hardly anyone ever walks, so it must have been thrown out of car windows, or blown off refuse lorries. Railway embankments are full of rubbish, and so are motorway slip roads.


The woodland where I used to walk the dog 10-15 years ago was in a dreadful state - mainly crisp and sweet wrappers, cans and bottles, some faded and stacked up into piles under the bushes and brambles. One year I started collecting every single bit of rubbish I found into a bag that I carried in the hope that once people saw how lovely the woodland looked without the rubbish, they would think twice before dropping it. I must have filled about a 100 black bags over the course of about 6 months, picking up rubbish as I walked the dog - and trying to clear round the brambles is something I do not want to repeat. Gradually the woods started to look amazing and seemed worth the effort but it didn't last long - I remember seeing a single silver wrapper from chewing gum dropped smack in the middle of the footpath and it looked so obviously out of place like a belisha beacon but several people had clearly walked over it as though sadly it was "normal".

Meanqueen wrote:Something needs to be done. I think the councils don't pick it up because they wouldn't have the facilities to deal with such vast amounts


the main issue is cost - with tight budgets, trying to fulfill their social care commitments and juggle who can get what, cleaning hedgerows are low on their list of priority. I'm all for encouraging children to take part in litter campaigns - as part of school projects and local communities - after all, if you've spent time cleaning up other people's rubbish it might make you think twice about littering yourself? And they are the generation who will most likely have to deal with the global problem so teach them about it now and encourage them to think of ways of preventing future problems? Young people are also very much into social media so they are able to spread the word quickly and more effectively to their peers.

Meanqueen wrote:I'm trying to remember what we did before plastic bottled drinks were invented. Nobody walked around carrying a drink


We had thermos flasks (metal ones with vacuum glass lining inside and a screw on cup) to keep cold drinks cool and hot drinks warm. They were not cheap, we looked after them and washed them carefully - when you heard that distinctive gravelly sound swirling in the flask, you knew the vacuum glass was broken but you replaced it. The metal or plastic lined vacuum flasks today are much better in that regard. I still have a few in different sizes at home (and a big one to take a hot meal like soup or hash) but I rarely use them these days as it is easier to buy ready drinks in plastic bottles or cans for when I go on trips. Maybe the thermos flask should be "re-invented" to look "cool" then maybe people might be encouraged to use them instead (we never put fizzy drink into a thermos because of the risk of breaking the vacuum glass lining but metal / plastic should be easier enough to do these days)

wendy wrote:What makes me the maddest...is I have to, by law, pick the poop from my dog and rightly so too. But I pick up a biodegradable product, that will be gone within a month, pushing aside the plastic bottles, that are not degradable, to do so.


On the one hand I agree that dog poo on footpaths or playing fields where people walk (especially children or in some cases, wheelchair users) should be picked up as it is a health hazard. But back to the woodlands where I walked the dog, it maddened me to see people make the effort to pick up the dog poo that was least likely to be problem where it would rot down quite quickly (and provide nutrients to the soil and plants) into a PLASTIC bag and then fling it into the trees where no-one could reach it. More maddening to see it just a few feet from the poo bin.

Richard wrote:The thing is that much of us not doing so will be down to the total irresponsibility of the few who only think about their own selfish need and no thought to all the other creatures we share the Planet with.


When I was growing up (so we are talking 40-50 years ago) when the problem back then was nothing compared to today's levels, we were always encouraged to throw our litter into bins or where there was none, to take it home. Clearly the message has got lost over the years and means nothing today. I don't think it's so much selfish but definitely no consideration. Society as we remember it is a dying thing - where everyone knew everyone on the street, even if you weren't friends with some people, you knew who they were and maybe where their kids went to whichever school. Most people felt shame if they thought their neighbours were talking about then but these days I only know the names of the neighbours either side of me. Catch a bus or train and watch people more engrossed with playing with their mobile phones than they are in looking at their surroundings. There's a young generation out there who are savvy with the latest technology because they have been encouraged to be competitive (for jobs, money or status) and use social media but this sadly isolates them from the real world outside their very front door. This might seem off topic to the issue of taxing plastic bottles but if the lessons of why we have to be taxed are not learned then in another 50 years the same problem will still be here. So instead of using tax like a whipping stick, shouldn't we also be positive in encouraging our youngsters to understand why tackling litter should involve everyone and let them express it in ways that they are good at?
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p.penn
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Re: Tax on plastic bottles

Post by p.penn »

I remember when there was 6d (seems a lot! ) on a Ribena bottle. As a child, I used to pick bottles up and take them back.Nice little earner!

So you would think I would be in favour of returnable bottles, and on principle I am, but in reality I’m very much on the fence. For a start, I think many still won’t be bothered. We are talking a generation here who think nothing of throwing away their coppers. A few pence will mean nothing to them. Also, if the scheme then undermines the council collection recycling from homes, I think it would be disastrous.
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fabindia
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Re: Tax on plastic bottles

Post by fabindia »

Here's my take on plastic in the sea, entitled drowning-in-a-sea-of-plastic, from a few months back in Thailand.

https://gone4goodnow.wordpress.com/2017/08/22/drowning-in-a-sea-of-plastic/
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