Feb. 26, 2019, Positive News: At the Infinitum bottle deposit hub, "a startling 97% of all plastic drinks bottles in Norway are recycled – and 92% of these to such a high standard that they are used to make more bottles. Some bottles have been recycled more than 50 times already.
This is because the system is strictly controlled: glue, cap and even label materials are checked and a small amount of virgin material is added. As its name suggests, the team at Infinitum wants to create a never-ending loop of plastic reuse.

"The Norwegian system – simple yet impressive – relies on two key incentives. First, the more companies recycle, the less tax they have to pay. If they reach a collective nationwide target of more than 95%, then they don’t pay any tax at all – that’s been the case every year since 2011. Second, customers must pay a deposit for each bottle, usually the equivalent of between 10p and 25p. This encourages a fundamental change of thinking in citizens: that, while the product inside is to be consumed, the bottles are on loan and so need to be returned.

"Add to the picture the great ease with which bottles can be returned at hundreds of thousands of ‘reverse vending machines’ and you begin to understand Norway’s success on this front.
Compare the country’s plastic bottle recycling rate of more than 97% with 43% in the UK and 28% in the US, and it’s clear how much there is to be learned..."

"Norway will still be challenged by the effects of oil consumption, as the rest of the world will be. But we’re not trying to reduce the use of plastic – we’re trying to reduce the creation of new, virgin plastic. Each year we get closer. If everyone returned all of the bottles they use, the production of virgin plastic would drop by 90%. Persuading people would be near impossible. But for now, the global economy is heavily reliant on plastic – from the food industry, to transport and technology. Norway shows the world a way to use it in the least damaging and most efficient terms imaginable. There’s potential here: there is no other way to package it."