Stormont should bring back bottle deposit schemes

Everyone over the age of 45 will remember the days in which the return of a Coca Cola or other such bottle generated a few pennies.

Such payments were made because glass was expensive and so it encouraged people to return such bottles.

It also had a useful impact on littering, because if someone abandoned such a bottle, other people had a financial interest in collecting and returning them.

It was something that began in the UK in the 1960s but began to fizzle out in the 1980s.

By then, the cost of making plastic bottles was so low that it was easier not to use glass bottles at all.

That very cheapness, though, has now become a major environmental problem.

Plastics are everywhere, at best merely blighting the countryside, at worst causing huge damage to the seas and wreaking havoc with ocean life.

In recent years, the world has become so extraordinarily wasteful that all but the most insensitive and thoughtless people realise that littering is a major global problem.

It is exacerbated by the rise in consumers buying takeaway products such as coffees, and getting a new cup each time.

At last, public opinion is driving change. Hot beverage outlets encourage people to bring reusable containers by giving them a price discount.

Sadly, though, a Westminster scheme to pay consumers to return bottles and cans for recycling has been badly delayed.

The deposit return scheme is unlikely to be ready in England, Wales and Northern Ireland before 2025.

Scotland is pressing ahead with its own plans next year.

Stormont should try to do the same. It is the sort of non controversial and beneficial local policy making at which devolution should excel.

It will not solve the problem of littering, but should help to make Northern Ireland that bit cleaner.

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