§ 11. Mr. Chris Mullin (Sunderland, South)If he will take steps to require the payment of returnable deposits on soft drink bottles and cans; and if he will make a statement. [68274]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Mr. Alan Meale)Returnable deposits may be helpful in particular circumstances, but a legal requirement would conflict with the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 that are already in place to promote recycling and recovery and, in some circumstances, could be contrary to the European Community directive on packaging and packaging waste.
§ Mr. MullinDoes my hon. Friend recall that, in the days when he and I were lads, long before the aluminium tin can, we could get thruppence back on a bottle of Corona?
§ Mrs. Diana Organ (Forest of Dean)Tizer.
§ Mr. MullinAnd Tizer. As a result, hedgerows and roadsides were not littered with soft and hard drink cans. Will the Minister look for a way around the problem that he has outlined because, were a deposit on drink cans and bottles to return, the problem of litter would disappear?
§ Mr. MealeI thank my hon. Friend for his question. He may be aware that the deposits on bottles were a bit more in my day than in his, but we are continually looking at ways in which to resolve that problem. For example, for the past four years, the Department has been trying to negotiate a way forward with business. We have now come up with new regulations that will go a long way towards solving the problem, but we continue to search for ways in which to improve on that. We are working with business to try to find a voluntary arrangement to meet the criteria. Deposit schemes are not always best because they can sometimes incorporate heavy use of transport, which adds to pollution and CO2 emissions.
§ Mr. Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley)As the Minister will know, I run a retail business in Swansea. In my younger days, I often accepted a shilling deposit back on a Corona bottle and on many other fizzy drinks bottles. I know that the business community would want to get involved in any voluntary schemes that were available, but is not part of the answer to those problems making more litter bins generally available throughout the country to encourage particularly young people to use those bins, so that they do not discard their refuse in people's gardens and in the streets?
§ Mr. MealeThe hon. Gentleman is right. The Department of the Environment, Transport and the 117 Regions is working continually with the Department for Education and Employment, and funding groups such as the Tidy Britain campaign, to find a solution. We are working to educate the masses to save and to stop polluting and contaminating our society.