The Alan Bown Set Before and Beyond
Anecdote from an Austrian in a pub last night (no time to fact check so take it for what it’s worth): at one time Germany were offering a 25 cent refund on returned plastic water bottles to encourage recycling. Meanwhile, in Austria, Aldi and Lidl were selling bottled water for 17 cents. Visiting family in Germany, my Austrian friend loaded his car with water.
How “green” government subsidies distort economics: it becomes profitable to spend energy making plastic bottles, fill them with water, drive them a hundred miles, pour the water down the drain and sell the plastic, whereupon more energy is used to melt it down and make new bottles.
Posted by Rob Fisher in Enviro-Mentalism