Charities are calling for a 5p charge on plastic bottles with the proceeds going to good causes, rather than being returned to shoppers.
The idea comes from the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), which argues it could raise almost £640million a year for community groups and charities.
It said the figure could be higher still if it was applied to other single use plastics, such as food packaging and throwaway coffee cups which have a plastic film coating.
The UK Government is looking at adopting a deposit and return scheme on plastic bottles that would encourage shoppers to take back the empties to reclaim the deposit.
This would dramatically increase the collection and recycling of plastic that currently ends up as litter, in landfill or being burned.
The UK Government is looking at adopting a deposit and return scheme on plastic bottles that would encourage shoppers to take back the empties to reclaim the deposit (stock photo)
However, the CAF argues that rather than customers getting the deposit back, some or all of the money should be diverted to good causes, which could include litter picking.
This would mirror the scheme adopted on plastic bags, which has both cut the number given away at tills and has raised tens of millions of pounds for good causes, everything from sports facilities to beach clean-ups and cancer care nurses.
There are important differences between how the scheme would operate with plastic bags versus plastic bottles.
With bags, the charge is designed to stop them being used in the first place by encouraging shoppers to use alternatives.
There is no obvious alternative to plastic bottles. In this case, the deposit would be applied to encourage people to take them back to a shop to claim the deposit back.
There is a question whether shoppers would be happy to return bottles in large numbers if they don’t get the deposit and it is diverted to a good cause.
Waste experts have suggested that a deposit of 15p would be needed on plastic bottles to provide the necessary financial incentive to get people to take them back to shops.
With bags, the charge is designed to stop them being used in the first place by encouraging shoppers to use alternatives – however with bottles it could be a different story (stock photo)
One option would be to give 10p back to the customer and divert the remaining 5p to good causes.
CAF said: ‘Following the Chancellor’s announcement in the Budget that he would explore the possibility of a levy on single-use plastic items, we calculated how much could be raised if a 5p levy, similar to that placed on single-use plastic bags, was introduced.
‘Based on figures by sustainability charity WRAP, that more than 35 million plastic bottles are used every day in the UK, a 5p levy on all plastic bottles alone could see £1,750,000 a day and subsequently £638,750,000 a year generated if levels of usage remained the same.
‘Even if the number of plastic bottles used every day fell by 85 per cent, similar to the reduction in use of plastic bags, this could still generate more than quarter of a million pounds a day for good causes.’
CAF said the 5p charge on plastic bags has brought huge benefits to charities.
‘By August 2016, nearly £10million had been distributed via CAF to charities by retailers including Aldi, Marks & Spencer, Co-Op and Sainsbury’s after the levy was introduced in October 2015,’ it said.
The chief executive of CAF, Sir John Low, said: ‘We know that the use of plastic bags fell dramatically following the introduction of the levy, which benefitted the environment but also raised millions of pounds for good causes.
‘A similar levy on single-use plastic items would reap similar rewards, reducing the consumption of single-use plastic items, but also in funding work which would not have otherwise been possible.’