Bottle tax | Shoppers face higher bottle costs which they could claim back when they recycle

Shoppers could be charged up to 20p more for each plastic bottle they buy under plans being considered by the government to stop waste clogging up landfill sites and entering oceans.

Recycle and Reward trials are already underway across Scotland where people can get incentives like money back, or discount vouchers for returning bottles, Ministers are watching the pilots closely to see whether similar schemes could be rolled out in south of the border.

A new litter strategy is currently being devised jointly by the Department of Environment (defra) and the Department of Communities and Local Government.

It could involve bottle return schemes although the government has ruled out a new flat tax, like the 5p charge for plastic bags which was brought in last year.

Shoppers would pay more for items like bottles of water, but would then get the money back when they returned the waste packaging to bottle banks.

Charities like Greenpeace say bottle bank schemes also put pressure on the companies who produce bottles to ensure that their materials are recyclable, while also making customers think about the blight of plastic.

Currently bottle return schemes run successfully in Germany, Denmark, and some states in Australia and the USA.

Some councils in Britain already incentivise householders by offering vouchers for recycling. In Windsor 71 per cent of people now regularly recycle because of incentives and Ealing, Bexley and Lambeth Councils in London also operate similar schemes.

Studies have shown that a scheme can reduce the amount of littered drink containers, lead to more recycling and contribute to the circular economy – where resources are used again and again to extract maximum value.

The Scottish Government has already said it is looking at such a scheme and the MCS said it would urge the UK Government to do so as part of a new strategy on litter, being drawn up by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department of Communities and Local Government.

The calls to tackle plastic, glass and metals drinks containers come after it emerged that just one in every 400 paper coffee cups are recycled because their plastic lining makes them difficult to process. However some MPs have argued that asking customers to pay up front is a ‘punishment’ rather than reward scheme which could see people losing money if they do not have the time to recycle.

A Scottish report into the recent pilots warned that the money lost by customers failing to return bottles could run into millions of pounds.