TIL that Lidl (or more accurately, their parent company) claims to have a full bottle recycling loop, in that all deposit-collected bottles are returned to *their own* PET recycling plant where they are turned into new bottles, and supposedly all of the PET drinks bottles at their German stores are 100% recycled plastic as a result
How accurate this is, I don't know, but that's what they claim, and they do genuinely seem to have a bunch of PET recycling factories
(Why this is notable: it's much more common for companies to talk about handing stuff in for recycling, but then outsource the actual recycling part to some unknown third party, where it often just doesn't happen)
@joepie91 in the area near where I work you can get a free ticket from the Council to visit the recycling centres, they also organise visits from high schools to learn about recycling - which at least proves the plastic is being processed locally as if it was just going over the North Sea it would make 0 sense to bring it further inland for sorting (the factories are in the other direction of the highway that goes to Felixstowe). The visits seem popular as the tickets go quickly..