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Glass bottle recycling, Finland 10 England nil

Many readers of this article will be surprised to learn that until 1971 the larger British breweries and soft drink manufacturers such as Schweppes operated a very successful deposit refund system on glass bottles. The demise of this system is largely attributed to the growth of Super and Hypermarkets who favour non-returnable bottles and, unfortunately, the real power in England lies not with the Government but with big business.

The Finnish Environmental Legislation of 1978 imposed a product tax on all beverage containers of one FIM on returnable bottles and three FIM on non-reusable bottles. It is, however, noted the law also requires non-reusable bottles to carry a deposit. The Federation of the Brewing and Soft Drinks Industry (Panimolitto) which manages the bottle refill system in Finland, reports that in 2004 there were 315 million glass and plastic bottles in circulation with a return rate of 98.7%, thereby preventing 380,000 tonnes of waste annually. Contrastingly, in England two million tonnes of glass currently ends up buried in landfill sites

In 1996, within the E.U. Finland, 79% and England, 90% landfilled (in terms of percentage) more household waste than any other country. The very qualities which make glass so suitable as packaging material - its strength and impermeability - mean that it is virtually indestructible when buried in the ground. There is, therefore, a pressing need for both England and Finland to reduce the amount of glass sent to landfill sites.

Article 36 of the Treaty of Rome includes a seemingly endless list of trade restrictions imposed legally (and sometimes not so legally!) by national states, cartels, syndicates and companies on foodstuffs and beverages. Typical of such examples are the recycling laws in Denmark where the law in effect precludes the use of non-returnable bottles for soft drink and beer. Their legislation, whilst intended as an environmental measure, in effect operates as a trade barrier, because bottle collection is simply impracticable for importers. Such laws resulted in Germany, which exports a large amount of beer to the Danish market, taking restrictive measures by introducing a 25 cents deposit on plastic bottles for drink. It is clear in both instances that protection for home industries was the real motive for the legislation - environmental protection has emerged as a legitimate ‘excuse’.

In Finland Alko has a virtual monopoly on imported wine and English beer with its elaborately shaped bottles. The deposit for such bottles can only be reclaimed from Alko – and sometimes not even there! The result a significant percentage of these imported bottles end up in landfill sites.

My recommendation would be for The Federation of the Brewing and Soft Drinks Industry to lobby the Finnish Government. All imported bottles, regardless of origin and including those sold in Lidl, should be of the standard Finnish size. The numerous benefits would include:

1) protection of the Finnish brewing industry

2) greatly increased recycling rates for imported bottles

3) enhancement of Finland’s reputation as a ‘green country’ and, finally

4) it might even encourage the British brewing industry to review its own environmental/recycling performance (or lack of) – then again maybe not!

Mike Bangle is the owner of Talking English language consultancy and can be contacted at mike.bangle(at)phnet.fi
 

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