Re-turn to clean streets
Litter decrease with cans & bottles deposit scheme
THE Re-turn scheme charging a deposit on cans and plastic bottles has seen litter levels drop across the country, it’s claimed.
Irish Business Against Litter, which monitors rubbish levels on our streets, said there was a near 30% fall in the prevalence of cans dumped in towns and cities.
It said while plastic bottles were also less common than in any past survey, they remain the third most prevalent form of litter on our streets.
And it questioned whether a levy on plastic coffee cups and glass beer bottles might have a similar effect. IBAL’S Conor
Plastic bottles
Horgan said: “It’s early days and we’re still seeing too many plastic bottles on our streets, but we can expect further improvement as people become accustomed to the Deposit Return Scheme and the legacy non-returnable items are flushed out of the system. Ultimately, we should see can and plastic bottle litter disappear entirely.
“These initial results indicate that if there’s a monetary incentive to do the right thing, people will respond. The same logic applies to a coffee cup levy. Tackling specific litter types with tailored measures is the most effective way of ridding our streets of litter.
“We concede that it’s an inconvenience for people but that’s a price we must pay.
“Coffee cups, while down, were present in one of every five sites surveyed. Unlike in some countries, the Re-turn Scheme does not include beer bottles, which were found in 10% of sites.
The study, conducted by An Taisce on behalf of IBAL, showed a healthy rise in towns reaching the upper tier of cleanliness – “Cleaner than European Norms” – and a fall of 35% in the number of towns branded “littered”.
WASTE