SINGAPORE: The introduction of the Beverage Container Return Scheme (BCRS), also known as Return Right, in Singapore earlier this year has been meant to reduce waste and encourage recycling. Like any initiative that changes long-standing habits, it has come with a learning curve.
There have also been some teething issues, including some people rummaging through trash bins to collect bottles and cans for recycling and the unpleasant smell and flies that gather near Return Right machines, as some beverage container returners have taken to emptying them nearby.
Retailers have also needed to get rid of their drink bottles and cans without Return Right logos, because from Oct 1, it became an offence to sell them. By the middle of last month, some began to sell the last of their stock without the logos for as much as a 50% discount.
It’s perhaps in connection with this that a local Reddit user recently asked if companies are now “switching to Tetra Pak to avoid BCRS.”
U/Orangecuppa posted a photo of a stand with 1-litre Pokka Green Tea in Tetra Pak cartons, though this beverage is sold in different flavours and sizes in bottles, cans, as well as in Tetra Paks, for a number of years now.
Tetra Paks are generally more environmentally friendly in that they use fewer resources for manufacturing than plastic bottles and aluminium cans, and while they are recyclable, they do not fall under BCRS, perhaps because recycling them is much more difficult, as the paper, plastic, and aluminium layers of Tetra Pak cartons are bonded together tightly, and separating them requires another facility.
Some commenters pointed out that Pokka is one of the companies that helped establish and operate BCRS in the first place, which helps answer the post author’s question.
Commenters on the Reddit post pointed out as well that manufacturing Tetra Pak would only work for large-scale production, and that carbonated drinks cannot be contained in these types of cartons.
Others noted that BCRS appears to have a positive side effect, in that some in Singapore are choosing to no longer buy beverages but are choosing to bring refillable water bottles.
“Tbf this is a good opportunity to stop buying sweet drinks,” a commenter wrote. /TISG
Read also: Singapore resident complains BCRS return right machine has an ‘extremely foul’ smell