B578 - GreenGlass Bill 2013, TSR Green Party
GreenGlass Act 2013
An act to introduce a compulsory, returnable deposit on all bottled drinks sold by supermarkets and to encourage the use of glass rather than plastic bottles.
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1. Deposit on all bottled drinks
1.1. From the 1st January 2015, all supermarkets must charge customers a deposit on every bottled drink sold.
1.2. This deposit will be set at a minimum of 10p for a glass bottle and 20p for a plastic bottle
1.3. Supermarkets are free to set higher deposits if they wish.
1.4. Supermarkets must also offer a minimum of one Bottle-Return Facility, in an easily accessible place that is in direct view of an entrance.
1.5. If there is more than one entrance, a bottle-return facility must still be in direct view of each one.
1.6. Supermarkets must also provide crates for customers to return bottles in, if they wish. They may charge a returnable deposit for this, but may not charge outright.
2. Disposal of bottles by Supermarket
2.1. Upon return by the consumer, the bottle is the possession of the Supermarket.
2.2. The Supermarket must do one of the following with returned bottles:
2.2.1. Send them to a recycling plant, which will recycle a minimum of 90% of plastic and glass returned.
2.2.1.1. In this case, transport is the responsibility of the recycling plant and will be paid for by the government.
2.2.2. Return them to the drinks manufacturer for cleansing and refilling (glass only).
2.2.2.1. In this case, transport is the responsibility of the manufacturer.
2.3. In both cases, it is the responsibility of the supermarket to agree on delivery arrangements with the respective third party.
2.4. If the drinks manufacturer accepts a bottle for cleansing and refilling, they are legally obliged to refill all recieved bottles which are in a suitable condition.
2.5. There will be no long-term financial incentive from the Government to persuade drinks manufacturers to reuse bottles as the savings they can make from the reuse as opposed to buying new bottles is regarded as enough.
3. Tax on plastic bottles
3.1. To dissuade the continued production of plastic bottles, the following taxe will be implemented.
3.2. A 20% tax on the sale of all drinks in plastic bottles to consumers. This figure is low enough so not to appear completely excessive upon the Act's adoption but is nevertheless significant enough to act as a prohibitive.
3.3. The proceeds from this tax will be used to fund the tax breaks for drinks manufacturers.
4. Incentives for the manufacture of glass bottles
4.1. Throughout the first three years of the Act's execution (2014-2017), drinks manufacturers that manage to use glass bottles for 50% or more for drinks will be eligible for tax breaks.
4.2. This tax break will be on a sliding scale from 0.5%-10% depending on the percentage of glass bottles.
4.3. In 2020, the tax on plastic bottles will increase by 5% per annum up to a maximum of 50%.
4.4. By 2025, the use of plastic bottles should be nearly eradicated.
5. Enforcement
5.1. Any supermarket found breaching 2.2 can face a fine up to a maximum of £10,000 (per supermarket).
5.2. Any manufacturer found breaching 2.3 could face a fine, up to a maximum of £100,000.
6. Commencement, Short Title and Extent
6.1. During a transitionary period of 1 year from the 1st January 2014 - 31st December 2014, all Supermarkets will be directly notified of the changes and given personal guidance with regard to the logistics and practicalities of the implementation of the Act.
6.2. The full Act will become law on the 1st January 2015
6.3. This Act may be cited as GreenGlass Act 2013.
6.4. This Act will extend across the United Kingdom.
7. Definitions
7.1. Supermarket: For the purpose of this Bill, a Supermarket will be defined as a shop selling bottled drinks occupying a floor area of over 200m3. For shops selling bottled drinks owned by a single company and under the same brand name, all shops must comply to the conditions of this bill regardless of floor area.
7.2. Bottle-Return Facility: A BRF must accept all bottles sold by the supermarket and must have an integrated deposit-return system that pays the deposit back for all bottles returned. Each BRF must accept a minimum of two bottles at the same time. Return holes may not be higher than 150cm off the ground. All BRFs must be on the ground floor and accessible without using stairs.
7.3. Bottle: For the purpose of this Bill, a bottle will encompass all containers of any consumable drink (apart from cans) that has a volume of 300ml or greater.
Notes
The GreenGlass Act is an attempt to replicate both the culture and the recycling system in Germany. Germany is well known as having one of the best environmental and recycling policies in Europe for its size and the deposit system is modelled after its one.
In Germany, practically all drinks are sold in glass bottles. Whilst it is more expensive to produce a glass bottle, the obvious advantage is that it can be used more than once - up to 100 times, in fact. This makes the footprint of glass bottles vastly smaller than that of plastic. Additionally, glass is easier to recycle than plastic. The result of this is that the system is not only more ecologically viable, but it also benefits the drinks industry as it decreases the manufacturing costs of producing the plastic bottles since they can simply reuse bottles. The reason why this hasn't been implemented in the UK is because the country does not have a system in place to allow (and incentivise) bottle returns.
The issue in the UK is two-fold. Firstly, we have a culture of using plastic bottles whereas in Germany they have always used glass bottles. Articles 3 and 4 are mainly oriented towards changing this culture. The second issue is that we haven't got a bottle deposit system, which is addressed in Articles 1-2. Whilst the taxes are arguably high, the end result will not economically harm consumers because, whilst there is the added cost of having to organise transport for bottles and changing plants to integrate a sanitising and refilling system, this will easily be offset by the profits gained as a result of being able to reuse glass bottles. Additionally, the Act will only fully be in place by 2025, giving consumers and manufacturers plenty of time to reorganise things. Finally, the Act only affects large supermarkets, so only companies that can afford to integrate the new infrastructure will have to do so.