A north-east Green councillor has questioned whether the council “has the bottle” to launch a new waste-saving campaign.
Paul Johnston, a member of the Democratic Independent and Green Group on Aberdeenshire Council, has called on his fellow members to back proposals to introduce a deposit scheme for single-use drinks containers.
A motion has been tabled by Mr Johnston and will be put to a meeting of full council at Woodhill House tomorrow. The motion calls for the authority to send a letter from council leaders to the environment secretary supporting the principle of a deposit return system.
“Many people remember bottle deposits in the past,” the Mid-Formartine councillor said. “We know that the deposit system can work here and evidence is mounting that this is a win, win situation where we can save money and protect the environment.”
Mr Johnson said the cost of drinks in single-use bottles would not rise under the plan.
“It’s just means that you won’t want to throw the container away. There’s a much better chance it will end up being recycled. Better still, would be to have fewer single use containers and save money.
” I hope that Aberdeenshire Councillors will have ‘the bottle’ to back the campaign and ask the Scottish Government to take the necessary steps forward.”
Similar bottle deposit systems in Norway, the Netherlands and the US state of Michigan have achieved returns rates of around 95%.
A recent report commissioned by Zero Waste Scotland indicated that a deposit return system for Scotland could save local authorities £13million annually on litter and waste costs.
