Reverse vending must be trending

AFTER numerous setbacks, Labour has passed laws to increase recycling of plastic bottles and drinks cans and reduce littering.

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In all, 31 billion single-use bottles and cans are purchased each year in the UK.

Plans in England have been pushed back to October 2027.

But in Europe, the systems, known as a deposit return scheme or reverse vending machines, are so successful that in Denmark 93% of all drinks containers are recycled.

The consumer pays a deposit on a drink and this is refunded when they return the container (the major source of plastic pollution ending in rivers and seas) to a machine, normally in a supermarket or to a larger collection point.

The Danes' Danks Retursystem is one the most effective schemes in the world, with only Germany topping it with a 98% return rate. In Denmark, 5.6 million cans and bottles are returned each year.

In the capital Copenhagen I witnessed just how easy the scheme is to use for consumers.