Plastic bottles

Bottles and cans are going to cost more

But you'll get money back if you return them

The UK's planning to introduce a 'bottle deposit scheme'. If you buy a drink in a plastic bottle or an aluminium can it'll cost more, but once you're done you just return it and you'll get the money back.

What it means: It's all part of the UK's plan to cut the amount of plastic that gets thrown away.

The bottle deposit scheme will work in two ways: more expensive bottles will discourage people from buying them, and encourage them to use reusable ones instead; and with the promise of a bit of sweet cashish if you return single-use bottles, the government hopes to make sure more plastic is recycled properly, and less ends up in our lovely oceans.

It's all down to what economists call incentives. Our behaviour can be influenced by the promise of either saving a little bit of money, or getting a little bit of money back. Sometimes incentives come in the form of a tax (the 5p plastic bag tax is a good example, or the huge taxes put on things like cigarettes and alcohol), but this kind of incentive is less common in the UK, though it's already in place in 38 other countries.

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