Can-do attitude to recycling

Sir, – I have been reading the news this week about the Deposit Return Scheme for bottles and cans which comes into effect on February 1st (News, December 4th). It appears that when you bring back such containers and thus redeem the significant deposit paid at the time of purchase, you will be issued with a paper receipt which is redeemed in most dealers as a credit on your purchases, or by it being returned as cash.

The eligible containers will be placed into what will be known as a reverse vending machine which reads the Re-turn logo on each item and issues the credit note.

Can you imagine trying to keep track of these potentially valuable slips of paper and having them entered by the refunding retailer?

Might I belatedly suggest that the machines include a magnetic card system, identical to a credit or debit card, but instead of deducting money, the cards would be updated to include the return value? Without fumbling for small bits of paper in your pocket, handbag or whatever, the value could be saved indefinitely on this continually updated card which could be used to purchase items, or be produced at the till for a deduction to be applied off your total purchases, at which time its value would be adjusted downward, or used completely. It could then be held and used for all subsequent qualifying returns of bottles and cans. Maybe the major retailers could facilitate this through the use of their loyalty cards system which would be modified to work in tandem with these reverse vending machines. – Yours, etc,