TOMRA welcomes launch of consultation on the introduction of a Deposit Return Scheme in England, Wales and Northern Ireland

TOMRA, the global leader in reverse vending, has welcomed today’s launch of a consultation on the introduction of a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The company is involved in deposit return schemes in more than 60 markets and says it looks forward to sharing its knowledge on how to ensure the scheme is as effective as possible.

“We are encouraged to see the launch of this consultation from Defra which is extremely thorough and carefully considered,” said Truls Haug, Managing Director for TOMRA Collection Solutions UK and Ireland says.

“Of the two options presented within the consultation, we support the ‘all in’ model as opposed to an ‘on-the-go’ model as we believe this would have maximum impact on increasing recycling rates."

He adds: “Successful deposit return schemes can play a significant role in sparking a recycling revolution and we will be watching with interest to see the consultation results in due course.”

TOMRA is seeing growing demand across the world for countries to increase their recycling rates for bottles and cans as a means to fight litter and ocean plastic and to conserve scarce resources.

Container deposit schemes can see up to 98 per cent of drinks containers returned to recycling (for example in Germany).

With one million plastic bottles bought around the world every minute, and that number estimated to rise by 20 per cent by 2021, demand is there to prevent and reduce the negative impacts that beverage container waste has on the planet.