søndag den 4. juni 2023

Danish Deposit System - Updated

The answer to Messymimi's comment on my post on Negativity became so long, I decided to turn it into a post of its own.

Messymimi wrote:
We are blessed with a recycle bin into which we can throw clean paper, paperboard and cardboard, all cans even if crushed to fit more in the space, glass, any solid plastic with the recycle symbol and a number on it, and many such things. Plastic bags and film with the recycle symbol can be taken to the grocery and dropped in their recycle box.

Of course, we don't get paid for this, we pay for the recycle bin along with our garbage bin, and it gets picked up once a week.

If you want to recycle larger metal items, you can take them to a scrap metal recycling center and get paid by the pound.

I'm just glad we are able to recycle so much so easily.

Yes, people throw their trash all over the place, and 've often wondered what they are thinking and why they do it. If i'm driving somewhere and have something in my car that needs thrown away, i take it home and put it in my garbage bin where it belongs.

RECYCLABLES
We have those recycle bins too. Our nearest are 200 m from home, and we can throw paper, glass metal batteries and plastic there.

What does not fit into these bins, like cardboard, wood, larger metal (which we do not get paid for) and so on we have to drive (neighbour helping) to a "big scrap place" 8 km away. As Mimi we pay for this service via taxes and payment for our garbage bins.

And I too am very happy with this system and use it for all relevant kinds of "garbage" And those cans and other crunchables I crunch up to make room for more ;)
Our local recycling bins; from left: Paper, glass, metal, plastic.
On the white fence behind the bins you'll find a small box for batteries.



BOTTLES & CANS
But bottles and cans for beer and soft drinks come with a deposit. If I buy me a soft drink, I pay 4.50 Kr. for the contents of a cheap soft drink and 1 Kr. for the bottle. (1 € is 7.50 Kr)

The 1 Kr. for the bottle is returned to me if I hand in the bottle in the supermarket - either the one where I bought the bottle or any other. Only very few bottles are brand specific. If instead I decide to break the bottle to use the bits for decorative purposes - or just for fun, I lose my 1 Kr.
My cheap soft drink that costs me 4.50 Kr. It contains half a litre of sparkling water with a touch of lemon. If you held it in your hand and turned it around, you would find a barcode and a deposit label looking much like this one.
Pant A means Deposit lowest rate = 1 kr.
     We have a B (1.5 kr) and a C (3 kr.) as well.
ALU A on top ... is for aluminium.
     Sorry I could not find one for Plastic. It would say PLAST P on my hypothetical bottle.

All soft drinks and beers sold in Denmark - and some other things like juice, alcopops, ciders, and smoothies - either come in standard glass bottles (equals Deposit A) or has a deposit label on them,
Only wine and alcohol bottles and those containing drinks with milk are exempt from this system. I never understand the reason why.


The four cans at the bus stop (here without Super Hero vision superimposed) were all marked with Deposit A. But as they were crunched, the deposit machine cannot read the label - or recognize the thing as a can, thus no deposit will be paid back for those four cans.
Free money for the supermarket, an evil for the environment, and a bother to me - or any other - who would have picked up and cashed the cans were they not crunched.

I just looked a bit further; 8 % of all bottles and cans with deposit marks are not cashed. 8% does not sound like very much -- but it amounts to 140 millions bottles and cans. Even if all were the lowest rate, 140 millon Danish Kroner is a huge sum of money.
It is approximately 18.800.000 € or 20.142.150 US $ or 16.211.418 £ or 30.379.594 Australian Dollars or 27.072.010 Canadian Dollars.

And this is what leads me to say that the Danish deposit system is fabulous ... only we need to raise the deposit, discouraging people from crunching up the cans and breaking the bottles. And if we could have the deposit on wine and liquor bottles too and those with milk, it would be just fantastic. A wild dream would be to expand this deposit system to all of EU. Added: And this seems to be a dream that the higher ups share as well. I read a suggestion to do just this yesterday.

 - - - - -

By the way, the pull tab on one of those energy drinks and the can itself seems to be Turquoise Blue -- the colour of the month.

4 kommentarer:

  1. I'm glad you have the bins, and sorry people crush the cans so they can't be redeemed. Even crushed cans here can go in the recycle bin, in fact, you are encouraged to crush them to fit more into the bins.

    Your solution sounds good, maybe someday it will happen.

    SvarSlet
    Svar
    1. Yes crushed cans like these go nicely in the recycle bin - and the supermarkets do not have to pay our deposit back - Guess who's happy with this trend ;)

      Slet
  2. That pull tag is certainly turquoise blue.
    We have recycling collected fortnightly. Paper, glass, cans and some plastics. Batteries and larger items have to be taken elsewhere - which discourages some people and those without transport.
    Sadly there was a fire in our local recycling centre and it is currently out of action. The recycling is still being collected but has to be transported considerable distances to be recycled.

    SvarSlet
    Svar
    1. At first here all recycling was in a central place, discouraging as you say. Then biodegradablesbecame household bins, and paper and glass those strategically placed large bins. Now metal and plastics are at the local places as well, and per legislation they all have to have been household bins by now. But when will this happen in real life? Politicians!

      Slet

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