Government Deposit Return Scheme draws criticism from environmental groups

The government has launched consultations to overhaul the UK’s waste system, cut plastic pollution, and move towards a more circular economy.

The consultations provide detail on plans to make packaging producers pay the full costs of dealing with their waste, as well as bringing in a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for cans and bottles.

The DRS has been proposed with two options, the “all-in” model, which would target a large amount of drinks beverages placed on the market, irrespective of size, and the “on-the-go” model, which would restrict the drinks containers in-scope to those less than 750ml in size and sold in single format containers.

However, the “on-the-go” model has drawn criticism from many due to it not allowing larger bottles, and only focusing on single format drinks containers.

The government’s justification is that larger bottles are typically drunk in the home, and consumers are more likely to recycle in their own homes, but numerous environmental groups have put pressure on the government to target bottles of all size.

Samantha Harding, Litter Programme Director at the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: “By introducing a deposit system that accepts and collects every single can and bottle, Michael Gove has a golden opportunity to end growing scepticism around current recycling methods, by boosting recycling rates of drinks can and bottles to near perfection.”

“This would make such a difference to the health of our environment and relieve struggling local councils of the huge financial burden of waste management, by making those who produce these vast amounts of packaging rightfully liable for the costs of dealing with it.”

Libby Peake from the think tank Green Alliance, said: “Introducing a deposit on all containers would improve the flow of materials into the recycling stream, and that will be a major plus.”“There are people in the industry who are trying to water down the scheme to restrict it to on-the-go containers, and if they succeed that will definitely make it less efficient.”

The “all-in” model has been used successfully in other countries, most notably Norway, which now sees recycling rates of 97 per cent, compared to the UK’s current rate of just over 50 per cent.

Many retailers, however have argued in favour of the “on-the-go” model.

Andrew Opie, of the British Retail Consortium, said: “A catch-all deposit would mean big bottles going into recycling machines rather than home recycling bins, which would remove a source of revenue for local councils.”

“We all want to see a world with no plastic pollution and high levels of recycling. But at a time when many shops are being lost from our high streets, the Resources and Waste Strategy presents business with an additional £3 billion bill.”

The consultations will last 12 weeks, and the government will later announce its final policy.