英格兰将征饮料瓶税以促进回收利用
生活在英格兰的人们很快就需要为饮料瓶、罐支付更多钱,从而帮助提高回收率,同时减少浪费。这一决定意味着消费者需要为部分饮品的包装瓶、罐额外付款,但如果把容器送还到店铺回收,他们就能得到相应的退款。
Our drinks in future are going to be a bit more expensive. We'll get our money back if we can be bothered to return our drinks containers to the shop. If the UK follows the sort of scheme adopted long ago across much of northern Europe, the empty bottles and cans would go into a machine that would identify them and give you a coupon to spend in the shop.
The Norway scheme has recycling rates of 94 per cent. Its UK counterpart will cover plastic, glass, steel and aluminium containers. Key questions are how much deposit should be charged and whether it should apply to large supermarket bottles or just to smaller bottles on the go.
Environmentalists are delighted but some industry figures may be worried about the price tag because business could be asked to pick up the bill for installing and running the deposit return scheme. Currently packaging manufacturers pay only around ten per cent of the local authority bill for recycling packaging.
未来我们喝的饮料的价格会变得更贵一点。不过只要费点力把装饮料的容器送回商店,我们就可以拿回一部分钱。如果英国也遵循这种早已被很多北欧国家采用的方案,就意味着店内会摆放一种机器,它能识别出被投入的空瓶空罐,并印出一张可在该店消费的代金券。
已实施该计划的挪威现在的回收率是94%。而英国的同类方案则会针对塑料、玻璃、钢和铝制容器进行收费。重要的问题包括:瓶罐押金的具体金额以及该制度是包括超市中常见的大号饮料瓶,还是仅限于随身携带的小号饮料瓶。
虽然环境保护主义者们对此感到高兴,但一些业界人士担心其价格费用,因为商户可能会被要求为安装和运行押金退还项目掏腰包。目前,包装制造商只需向地方政府支付10%左右的包装回收费。