A SCOTTISH Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) isn’t a new idea. In my childhood (1940s/50s) kids got a ha’penny or a penny for returned glassware and this was often our tip for delivering a neighbour’s messages. Medicine bottles were expected to be returned to the chemist to be refilled but there was no payment there. Most bottles and jars were reused even if not for the original product. Any dirty, chipped or cracked items were refused payment and presumably ended up as cullet or maybe landfill. I don’t know.

I believe the iconic Coca-Cola bottles were nearly all faithfully returned and were reused on average about 60 times before being withdrawn for remelting. Can anyone confirm or correct this?

It was the same with milk bottles when they were introduced. There was a near 100% return rate and bottles were reused repeatedly.

For the younger generation – before individual bottles, milk was brought around in churns and you went out with your own milk jugs and could ask for any measure in units of a quarter of a pint. This was effective for meeting the customers’ exact needs on a day-to-day basis and avoiding wastage. Milk of course was still a natural product and had a maximum usable life of not much more than 24 hours. In thundery weather, it could go “off” by the afternoon, maybe only 12 hours after leaving the cow! That wasn’t all bad news though as the sour milk would be used to make a batch of home-baked scones rather than wasted.

When I was working in Newcastle (1960s), I’m sure the milk bottles were the same crown-capped bottles as used for the local “Broon Ale”. Did the dairy benefit by adopting the brewer’s bottle design and local availability?

“Drinka pinta milka day” was the advertising jingle of the time, and although I didn’t detect any enhanced flavour in the Newcastle milk I think that closer cooperation between brewery and dairy had the potential to become a selling point.

Surely the bottle washing process is cheaper, uses less energy and is more environmentally friendly than crushing, remelting and remaking bottles? Milk bottles weren’t standardised across suppliers but as the milkman delivered the full bottles, he collected the empties so his stock wasn’t mixed with incompatible shapes. If you occasionally had to buy an extra bottle from the Co-op, you took that different bottle back to the shop.

A few years ago, we opted for glass bottles for our milk delivery when our dairy introduced them and we were rather surprised that in this metric age, they were the familiar old-fashioned one-pint bottles.

We were also surprised when early in the scheme bottles had to be clearly marked, asking customers to leave them for the milk delivery person to collect. That was obvious to our generation but apparently modern generation customers were putting them in the bottle bank despite paying more for them than the waxed cartons.

The proposed DRS would be able to identify specific bottles so surely they could easily be selected and categorised for reuse. After washing and inspection, they could be sold back to potential users at less financial and environmental cost, and this would contribute towards the cost of operating the scheme.

I am not surprised that the Tories have U-turned on their manifesto commitment and their earlier agreements with the devolved nations under lobbying pressure from their donors. That is just routine behaviour for Tories, but I’m disappointed to see the Scottish Government knuckle down to Westminster bullying rather than stand up for their principles and go it alone.

Murray Dunan

Auchterarder

BUSINESSMEN and wimmen in Scotland who invested in processing bottle returns are reported to be considering suing the Scottish Government because the UK Government overruled the process. Why not sue their Tory chums in Westminster for sabotaging the scheme and who alone are directly responsible for breaking bottles over the heads of the Scottish people?

Donald Anderson

Glasgow

IN the television newsin, we wes telt at wullfyres at wes outbrakkin in Scotland ilka eir yaised ti be expekkit anerlie ilka twal eir. Bot nou this wes fur the ordinar. The lowes wes heized kis o warl waarmin bot wes stertit bi dowps branders an brakken gless. Menetymes, Wastmeinster wes ettlin agin a propone o the Scotch Gubernment ti pit a depose on ilka gless bottil ti stap fowk skailin gless about the kintra. This is fiddlin whyle Roum birns.

(In the television news, we were told that wildfires that were breaking out in Scotland every year used to be expected every 12 years. But now this is the new normal. The fires were encouraged by global warming but were started by cigarette ends, barbecues and broken glass. Meanwhile, Westminster was working against a proposal of the Scottish Government to put a deposit on each glass bottle to stop people scattering glass about the country. This is fiddling while Rome burns.)

Iain WD Forde

Scotlandwell