30 years ago we used to have refundable deposits on bottles. As a boy I used to collect bottles from home and the neighbours and take them down to the local store to supplement my pocket money. Sadly economics then meant that it was cheaper for the drinks manufacturers to just make new bottles than recover and wash the old ones. Now it seems we're turning full circle, which I think is a good thing. I can now see my children collecting and returning bottles for the deposit too.

Rick, Surrey,

At last some rational thinking!
It has long been realised by people with common sense (I suppose that eliminates the government then) that to reduce waste, the offer of incentives is always going to be more effective that the fear of fines!
It always amazes me that experts always say you should encourage children, which will result in better behaviour etc... but when it comes to governing a country, threats instead of encouragment is always used.

Pete, St Albans, England

If we had police officers patrolling our towns and cities and, on the rare occasions they actually do make a public appearance if they then upheld the law on littering, the litter louts might think twice before spoiling our streets. Instead we have a typical NuLabour respose of making things more complicated and expensive. No doubt this will require the creation of hundreds of Litter Monitoring Officers jobs at a local council level plus thousands more Target Setting and Measuring posts at a national level.

J Kane, Reading,

As usual, Britain is way behing the rest of Europe where deposit charges exist for years and work very well.

Majority of the population are pathetically ignorant of the harmful effect of litter on our environment and only such incentives as deposit charges would encourage people to recycle and be more conscious of the amount of garbage they produce.

Jane K, London, UK

This deposit system works brilliantly in Germany - who have recycling stations everywhere anyway, but also have veding machines / storage areas inside supermarkets or other public areas that you go and exchange your empties for cash. Even though drinking and having parties on the town streets is common place (glass and beer bottles of pop and beer are very cheap) there is no problem with littering - even if people left their empties on the street on a saturday night, different people would have collected them all up for exchange by 7am the next day! I would love this system to be implemented here...assuming there isn't a 'deposit tax' along with the deposit...

JP, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire

Like many who grew up in the fifties and sixties, collecting discarded empties & returning them for the deposit augmented my pocket money to a good degree. Why did England stop using deposit based bottles? I believe the answer was the introduction of VAT and its complexity.


When VAT came in, I had a part time job in a small shop selling soft drinks in deposit bottles. The VAT accounting for this was a nightmare for the owner. Scrapping the deposit was a godsend because it simplified the book keeping.


At the time, the government propaganda cried that VAT was a massive improvement over the old 'purchase tax' and would simplify things no end. It didn't. At the time in question, I think the problem was something to do with different VAT rates on the containers and the contents and accounting for returns involved a lot of pointless work simply to satisfy regulations.

Ray Warren, Dartmouth,

What is there to spend 10 years consulting about - take some damn action. Labour, stop being so feeble and indecisive, you are so ineffective against private interests, yet when it comes to taxing the poor and giving that money to the rich, it seems that's no problem at all!

A deposit scheme has worked successfully in Germany for ages, just copy what they do instead of having our own daft system that will almost certainly not work because we're so concerned with "not impacting" on business.

Kevin Rogers, Preston, United Kingdom

I welcome Joan Ruddock MP's investigation into the possibilities of reintroducing a deposit system for bottles and cans etc. If she wants to see a good example of it in practice then why not pay a visit to Denmark?
You purchase alcohol in bottles in the supermarkets as cans are not allowed ,and you pay the deposit at the checkout.
Most supermarkets and small shops have an area undercover near the main entrance where you place the crate on a conveyor belt ,and it feeds through and issues you with a receipt which you then take to the checkout and get your money back. It works very well there, although it is something that the E.U is not happy about. Unlike Britain the Danes do not throw their litter out of cars ,or drop litter on the pavement.
They have a pride in the appearence of their country, this is something we need to regain quickly ,whether through ongoing education ,or more rigourous enforcement of existing legislation. Their town centre streets tend to be very well kept.

Carl kisicki, Biddulph, Staffordshire