Norway ’s radical recycling program is providing unbelievable results : up to 97 percent of the country ’s plastic nursing bottle are now recycled . Off the back of this succeeder , other countries are now looking to the Scandi - model and hop to learn from it .
The success is thanks to the Norse government ’s environmental tax that pay back companies that are environmentally friendly . Since 2014 , all plastic producer and importer are subject to an environmental taxation of around 40 cent per feeding bottle . However , the more the company recycles , thelower the tax . If the company finagle to reuse over 95 pct of its charge plate , then the taxation is dropped .
Customers also pay a small “ mortgage ” on each bottled product they buy . To get back their money , they must wedge their used nursing bottle in one of the 3,700 “ mortgage machine ” find in supermarket and convenience stores across the country , which reads the barcode , registers the bottle , and gives them back a voucher .
like scheme exist in Germany and several US states , such as California , but Norway claims their system is the most in - tune with the scale of the twenty-first - C ’s charge plate epidemic . In 2017 , Infinitum collectedover 591 millionplastics bottle . Kjell Olav Meldrum , CEO of Infinitum toldThe Guardianin 2018 the system is so in effect that many bottles now in circulation around the state contain material that ’s been reprocess over 50 times already .
“ We are the existence ’s most effective system , ” Sten Nerland , director of logistics and operations at Infinitum , recently toldPositive News . “ As an environmental caller you might think we should test to deflect charge plate , but if you treat it in effect and recycle it , plastic is one of the good products to apply : clear , malleable , and it ’s cheap . ”
Meanwhile , the plastic infestation continues . Plastic is flow into the oceans at a rate of around8 million tonnesevery single class . By 2050 , if current trends continue , it ’s estimated that plastic trash in the oceanwill outweigh fish .
As the Norwegian model clearly shows , not all Bob Hope is lost .
Over the past couple of years , legion countrieshave transport example to Infinitum in the hopes of determine from the Norwegian model , include Scotland , England , China , India , Kazakhstan , Croatia , France , the Netherlands , Australia , and the US . The UK , for one , has looked to set a similar outline that willreward consumersfor recycling packaging .
