Ms Mindy O'Brien:

In regard to the deposit refund scheme, if bottles have value they will not be lying around. I have had experience of this in Michigan and have lived with it for 40 years. A reverse vending machine is easy to use and the stuff can be used in big and small shops.

We have to deal with trade across state lines so we get bottles from Indiana, Illinois etc. There is no deposit on them but this information can be read from the bar code so a person will not get any credit for it. We really need to address single-use items such as straws, plastic cutlery etc. and think of banning such items. Polystyrene is a scourge of the oceans. We met with zero-waste people in San Francisco and Seattle and they all use compostable containers for food, such as wooden forks. I asked if it cost more but they said that, as demand increases and there are more producers, the price comes down.