Buy-drink-return: how deposits on cans and bottles untangle recycling confusion

Throughout September, the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) held 35 litter picks across England as part of its nationwide ‘Green Clean’. As well as helping communities clean up their local green spaces, CPRE wanted to highlight the astonishing variety of cans and bottles discarded across our countryside, towns and cities.

In Dorset, the Green Clean initiative was supported by Schools, Community Groups and Organisations including: Litter Free Dorset, Dorset Devils (Bournemouth Beach), Dorset Wildlife Trust (Worbarrow Bay), Litter Free Purbeck, Wareham Wombles, Damers First School with The Thomas Hardye School, and West Dorset Conservatives (Weymouth Beach).

The CPRE Reverse Vending Machine visited Dorset from 13th to 15th September. Volunteers were able to dispose of, and receive cash for, each of the drinks containers they pick, giving people a feel for how the national system will work and highlighting how financial incentives can help to boost recycling.

Litter Free Dorset has just launched a new campaign ‘Don’t be a TOS53R’ in partnership with Keep Britain Tidy aimed at those who toss their rubbish out of car windows – visit www.litterfreedorset.co.uk for more details.

The data resulting from the Green Clean events will help the Government as it designs England’s ‘deposit return system’, which, if properly set up to collect every drinks can and bottle, will provide a simple solution to recycling confusion and boost recycling rates for drinks container waste to more than 90%.