Whitehead residents to be paid for returning single-use plastics

Residents of a County Antrim town are to be paid for returning their single-use plastics.

People in Whitehead will get 20p for every qualifying soft drink bottle they return.

They will use a phone app to participate and the money will then be paid to a digital wallet on their device.

They then either have the option to cash out in a shop in the town or donate the money to local charities.

The scheme is an eight-week-pilot that will run until the end of October across 2,000 homes.

It comes as the authorities assess different types of what is known as a deposit return scheme.

A phone app will be used to scan codes placed on products

Northern Ireland, along with the rest of the UK, is committed to implementing a scheme to cut down on plastic waste.

It would see a premium put on the price of products that would be paid back to consumers when they returned the bottles.

On the continent, reverse vending machines are used, which issue vouchers when items are returned.

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There is no price premium being added to the products, which are being marked with a temporary QR code during the Whitehead trial.

The cost of paying out the money claimed will fall on the company that has developed the app.

Developer Tony McGurk said if all 67,000 products marked with the codes were returned it would cost him £12,000.

Bottles and cans

Consumers can use a smartphone to scan the coded products and the participating bin they are returning the bottle to, which will also have a unique code.

They will be able to use their household recycling bins and a small number of public bins in the town.

Wine bottles and aluminium cans will also be accepted during the pilot and will attract a 10p payment.

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Mr McGurk said the advantage of his system was that it meant people did not have to bring their bottles to reverse vending machines, which he said were expensive to install and run.

He claimed his system could work across existing recycling systems here that use a mix of kerbside boxes and bins, which accept glass, cans and plastics.