The British government is considering bringing in additional charges for buying plastic bottles to tackle the quantity of waste taking up space in landfill sites and polluting the sea. Customers buying liquids in plastic containers would have to pay an extra 10p or 20p for each bottle they buy, which would be refundable upon returning the bottle, The Independent reported. The deposit return scheme has already been trialed in Scotland, and similar schemes already exist in Europe, Canada and the US. Ministers are now understood to be looking at the Scottish trials in detail as part of a new strategy to tackle litter in Britain. According to Recycle Now, the national recycling campaign for England funded by the government, UK households use 480 plastic bottles a year, but recycle just 270 of them. This means that of the 35 million plastic bottles being used every day, around 16 million are not recycled. What's more, the use of plastic bottles is still growing.
