If you have recently driven round from the Erskine Bridge, making your way to Bishopton or Erskine, you cannot have failed to notice the amount of litter at the side of the road.

This is not a new problem. As many of you will already know, litter lying about here is not unheard of.

We certainly don’t seem to be winning the war on litter – and not just in this area. In just about every street you walk down, litter is a problem.

If you look a little closer, you may notice many plastic bottles that have been discarded alongside plastic bags, paper and the other general rubbish.

Well, the makers of Coca-Cola might just be about to take action.

It seems the firm is considering Scotland as a test-bed for a bottle recycling scheme.

The bosses at Coca-Cola think it just might be good for their image if they encouraged recycling by adding a small, refundable deposit on these drinks, which would be returned to you when you return them to the shop.

The Scottish Government has already debated the idea and, should it go ahead, then it might just be you can get 10p whenever you take a Coke bottle or can back to the shop once it is empty.

It seems the idea is catching on, as Coca-Cola said that, when they asked folk in the UK what they thought of it, 63 per cent agreed with them.

Of course, those of us of a certain vintage remember when it was common practice to have money returned for empty bottles.

As some might say, everything comes round in circles.

Perhaps the minority of students who seem determined to drop litter on their way back to school from the shops may just clean up their act?

Better still, schools could take this on as a fundraising project and put the money to good use.

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