Recycling Lottery May Come to Britain

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Wednesday, 30 March 2005

A consumer watchdog has called on the government to introduce a "recycling lottery", with cash prizes to encourage people to adopt a more environmentally aware lifestyle. The scheme's environmental credentials even stretch to using products due to be recycled as the tickets for the draw, removing any need for paper.

Under a similar project in Norway, entrants squash six drinks cartons inside a seventh and write their details on it before dropping it into a recycling bin. The scheme is run by a not-for-profit company set up by the packing and filling industry, which avoids a direct levy by attaining a recycling rate set by the government. The lottery - which has a first prize of nearly £15,000 - has seen the number of people recycling cartons boosted from 30% to 70% of the population.

The National Consumer Council believes a similar idea could work in Britain and particularly wants to adapt it to target Britain's growing battery mountain. Just 1,000 of a total 25,000 tonnes of household and industrial batteries are currently recycled each year.

For full story go to: http://money.guardian.co.uk/ethicalmoney/story/0,1356,1448488,00.html