TV 19th Feb: documentary on litter

[fl0wer]

Read here about volunteers who go round picking up the tins and bottles fly-tipped in their towns, http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/17/litter-vigilantes-clean-up-dirty-streets

For me the interesting question is how we change peoples' habits of throwing stuff down on the ground instead of disposing of it appropriately. Get the verges & hedges and corners of woodland restored to beauty and the grass safe for small creatures again.

How to teach children early on that this is their Earth to protect? It would be great if parents and schools ran drinks can & snack wrapper campaigns and enlisted the co-operation of youngsters. Manufacturers & retailers only listen when the profits dry up.

A small returnable deposit per glass bottle,(system some of us remember well) has been shown to provide an incentive, works well elsewhere in Europe.

[DulwichFox]

A bottle deposit scheme would be costly and counterproductive

The deposit scheme worked in the UK at a time when containers were made to be refilled.

Manufacturers needed to get them back and so used deposits to encourage return.

would cost as much as ?700m a year to run.

The public sector would save ?160m in cleaning costs",

but this would hardly compensate for the cost of the scheme.

Related Article. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/01/bottle-deposit-scheme-costly-counterproductive

Fox

[fl0wer]

As counterbalance to the 2010 piece linked above, readers might enjoy this: http://www.energysavingwarehouse.co.uk/news/380/20/The-Bottle-Deposit-Scheme.html