International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

It is important to recognise also that the nature of the take-back system in deposit
refund schemes generally lends itself to the delivery of higher quality materials from
the waste stream. In the context of ongoing issues around the quality of materials
extracted for recycling within Ireland, this might be a relevant point. Equally, there are
ways of operating kerbside collection systems which are more and less prone to
contamination of the materials collected, so deposit schemes are not the only way of
addressing the issue of quality in terms of materials collected.
16.8 Effects on Technical Change / Innovation
One of the effects of deposit refund schemes has been to reinforce the ongoing
development of near infrared sorting techniques. These are increasingly deployed in
reverse vending machines. In addition, the labelling of containers in deposit schemes
has developed over time to allow ‘in scheme’ and ‘out of scheme’ containers to be
detected.
On the choice of distribution method – one-way or refillable – deposit refunds have
been used in some circumstances to maintain the refillable market, though not
always with success. Anderson suggests that Germany used different charges for
single-use and for refillable bottles and found that sales of non-refillable containers
dropped by about 60%. 370 He also suggests that refillable PET bottles are
increasingly being used and composite packaging is being substituted with single
material alternatives. However, this outcome refers to systems in place prior to the
most recent experience, which is discussed further in Annex 17.0.
Fee setting for deposit refund schemes has been used, for example in Taiwan, to
discourage certain materials (in particular PVC) and encourage single material
containers.
The technology of PET recycling has been stimulated (though arguably by both the
Packaging Directive implementations and deposit-refund schemes). Increasingly PET
bottles can be recycled back into PET bottles, but as there is a loss of quality of the
end product this cannot be regarded as a closed loop.
16.9 Social and Distributional Consequences
Generally, it might be supposed that deposits are small enough that they do not
represent a barrier to purchase, especially given that the refund is normally soon after
purchase, either because the goods are fast-moving consumer goods (like beverages)
or the system is set up to facilitate early refund (e.g. the used lead acid battery has to
be returned within 30 days of buying a new one to collect the refund). However, some
schemes, such as the German scheme, operate with high levels of deposit. The effect
on the consumer market is not clear, but evidently, consumers who are more cash
poor may be encouraged to purchase containers without deposits, especially if these
exist, and if obtaining the refund is not straightforward.
370 Robert C. Anderson (2004) The United States Experience with Economic Incentives for Protecting
the Environment, Report for US EPA, Nov 2004.
334
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