Hi, @betrayerx. I think paying people to recycle is a genius thing! We've been having this in Norway for a very long time, and the conclusion here is that most plastic bottles and metal cans (such as beer bottles) are being returned and recycled.
I don't know how it is in Australia, but here we have to pay a "fee" every time we buy a plastic or metal bottle, and we get this fee back in cash when we return this to a recycling point.
Oh that's cool. In Australia, we purchase plastic or glass bottles or aluminium cans and are returned 10c back when returned to collection points. So there's no actual "fee" or rather we don't necessarily call it a fee. It's just included in the costs of buying the drink.
Oh, that's actually easier than how it's like here. We have prices like "25NOK + recycling fee" for these purchases, and it can be annoying to figure out exactly how much it will cost, since the recycling fee for the bottles can be either 1NOK or 2.5NOK.
Yeah, that's very interesting. I feel like in Norway, you have a constant reminder of recycling since there is a fee. Whereas in Australia, we don't. Thanks for sharing though, learnt something new.
Yeah, it works really well here at least. Most cans are returned, and some years over 95 % of all beer/metal cans are returned, so it's a huge success for the environment. I'm glad to hear you learned something new :)
I remember when I travelled to Germany they had a fee like in Norway there. I thought is was an amazing idea as it does actively remind and encourage people to recycle, I wish it was the case in the UK and everywhere. A plastic bag fee was introduced here not too long ago and it's removed so much litter from the streets, theirs a long way to go but the effects are massive, hopefully people here will see the small price and effort as worth it.
Yeah, fees really do help! I'm surprised that there have not been more countries that have the recycling fee for cans and bottles, because they (especially aluminum cans) are really important to recycle.
With china banning unsorted recycling I think a few countries will have a higher incentive to look into that but in the longer term