A SUPERMARKET scheme to encourage shoppers to hand back plastic bottles in exchange for money may not come to Swindon because the store’s previous recycling bank was badly abused.

Tesco is about to trial a programme, where customers are rewarded with 10p per returned plastic bottle, using in-store recycling machines.

But staff at the Ocotal Way store are adamant they don’t want it because of bitter past experience.

A store spokesman said: “We tried to introduce a recycling scheme to fulfil the needs of everyone, but due to the abuse of the recycling bank we have agreed that the best option was to take this away from the location.

“It became difficult to monitor and manage it due to the frequency of it happening."

Staff fear the facility would still be abused even inside the store.“If we introduce the plastic bottle scheme to this store it will lead to further misuse and that’s something we don’t want.”

Recycling facilities were removed four months ago because people started to leave beds, vacuum cleaners, washing machines and other litter around the bins.

The amount of dumped cardboard was a fire risk and food waste left there was another environmental issue because it was beginning to attract vermin.

Disappointed shoppers backed the staff’s view.

Lewis Waldon said: “To be honest I can’t blame them for not wanting to have this recycling scheme at the store. If people were misusing it in the first place, it will just happen again if they were to bring the unit back.”

Joanne Jamil said: “Although it’s a shame that we won’t be able to do our bit for the environment with recycling, I can totally understand why the store wouldn’t want this to happen.”

And Sam Mawson added: “It would make zero sense bringing this back when it will just be ruined again.”

The scheme, where machines will automatically pay consumers every time they return plastic bottles, is set to be introduced nationwide if a planned pilot in major UK cities is successful.

Last week Tesco UK and Ireland chief executive Jason Tarry said: “We are already committed to eliminating single-use plastic wherever we can and make recycling simpler for customers."

“However, we know that it is going to take retailers, manufacturers and government to work together to make progress.

“We would urge the government to move to a single, nationwide approach to waste collection that makes it much easier for people to recycle.”