Ms Mindy O'Brien:

I grew up in the state of Michigan. They put it into the constitution in the 1970s. They put the deposit on carbonated drinks and never anticipated bottled water. Our statistics have gone down because people do not return the bottles of tap water.

The fizzy water is covered. They charge 10 cent. Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Holland, 11 states in America, parts of Canada and Australia have deposit refund schemes and Scotland is also looking to set up a scheme. The EU is looking at the possibility of doing a deposit refund scheme for aluminium cans. I argue, however, that if we look around on the streets, we see plastic bottles, aluminium cans, glass bottles and coffee cups. Those are the huge polluters. We find that there is so much plastic in the marine environment, we are going to have more plastic than fish. As an island nation we really must be cognisant of that.