REAL VALUE IN POP BOTTLES

Today they call it 'cash back' but when we were young back in the 60's and 70's taking the Corona pop bottles and Ribena squash bottles back to the shopkeeper for money back was simply the norm. We scoured fields, parks, rubbish bins (afraid so!) and building sites (well you were allowed on them in those days before health & safety regs as we know them today!) and we collected them from anyone who was happy for us to keep the money back. A great recycling venture, a great little earner! So today the BBC News announced that the group Campaign to Protect Rural England have proposed to the Government that the scheme is revived and seems to have initial support (check out guardian.co.uk). Great, bring back the cash refund that was so popular back some 30 years +. It worked then so why not now. Well without wanting to condemn this revival from the off but there is one real obstacle - 'Consumer / User Attitude'.... & guess what, my secondary response (secondary as my primary was "great, about time we tapped into those old fashioned values for the sake of the environment") was confirmed when I caught the BBC news with youngsters being interviewed about the idea - they didn't get it, rate it and thought that it was simply easier to chuck the bottles rather than head for a shop to get the proposed 15p back. The thing is in the younger generations eyes 15p has no value and they treat it as such and that's why when Fi is in school teaching, her and her colleagues are constantly picking up 5p's to 20p's off the playground floor. The kids throw them away, Why? Because they are valueless, small change doesn't afford them what they want and, get this, the coins weigh too much in their pocket..... aaarrrggghhh! Have they not learned that simple maths lesson.... pennies add up to pounds! That's where pop bottle collecting and money back was brilliant - I certainly saved the pennies to buy my sketch pads or my records or a cinema ticket or a Bazooka Joe bubblegum or a sherbet dip at the very least!