Plastic bottles still fantastic in Norway

FETSUND, Norway－One at a time, the elderly woman places her empties into the gaping hole of a machine at the entrance to an Oslo supermarket. With a well-functioning deposit system, Norway recycles almost all of its plastic bottles.

"You have to get rid of them, so you may as well do it intelligently," said the woman in her 70s, as the machine spits out a barcode ticket that entitles her to around 30 kroner ($3.25) either in cash or credit at the till.

With its 97 percent recycling rate, Norway is 10 years ahead of the European Union's 2029 target date for countries to recycle at least 90 percent of their plastic bottles.