The World in 2030

The World in 2030 157
automobile industry. 304 And in Germany, where deposits are
paid on plastic bottles, and return is a legal requirement,
recycling is undertaken very conscientiously by citizens:
Germans separate their trash with an earnestness and
conviction that often confounds newcomers. There
are bins for paper, compost and general trash. There
are three bins for glass – clear, green and amber – and
a yellow bin for plastics, metals and packaging. As
many as seven bins can crowd the back courtyards
and side alleyways of German homes.
Berlin residents, who pay a deposit on plastic bottles,
may also take them back to the store where they were
purchased and claim a refund - the most popular solution.
305
In Ireland citizens have been so responsible about recycling
that the nation has hit a recycling target well ahead
of schedule. In 2005 Ireland recycled 60 per cent of its
packaging waste, 306 meeting its EU proscribed target for
2011 six years early.
One of the problems with the economics of plastics
recycling has been that plastics recovered from foodstuff
packaging and bottling hasn’t been considered ‘clean’
enough to be re-used to make food containers or bottles.
The plastic recovered has been used for products such as
plastic garments (see the Marks and Spencer recycled-plastics
fleece 307 ) and plastic insulation materials. The problem is
that these types of plastic yield far less income for recyclers
than plastic which can be re-used to contain foodstuffs.