Iceland releases plastic bottle return pilot results

Shoppers earned more than £30,000 by recycling plastic bottles during an Iceland trial of reverse vending machines.

They got a voucher worth 10p for every deposit of a bottle bought at stores in Wolverhampton, Mold, Fulham and Musselburgh (Iceland's head office, in Deeside, also took part in the pilot). 311,500 plastic bottles have been recycled so far. The machines accept bottles of up to three litres, which need a barcode showing that they were sold by the store.

Richard Walker, Iceland MD, comments: "It's clear from the results that consumers want to tackle the problem of plastic head on, and would be in support of a nationwide scheme.”

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