The Recycling Association has welcomed the Government’s announcement that the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will be delayed until October 2027.
But it has suggested that this time should be used to consider whether DRS is required at all.
The Recycling Association chief executive Paul Sanderson said: “As an Association, we are against the introduction of a DRS scheme as we believe it will enable cherry-picking of material, less revenue for local authorities and more vehicle movements as a result of people driving to reverse vending machines.
“Instead, we have always advocated for time to be taken to assess whether a Digital DRS scheme can be introduced instead, where people get rewarded for recycling their bottles and cans at home.
“This delay should be used to fully trial and assess the opportunity of a Digital DRS rather than wasting time and a lot of money aiming for an October 2027 roll-out of reverse vending machines everywhere.
“One of the weaknesses of DRS is that there is a lack of consistency around how it will be implemented across the UK. It is especially disappointing that Wales plans to include glass in its DRS scheme, while England, Scotland and Northern Ireland will all not include it and have the same materials collected. Not including glass makes a huge amount of sense for material quality in reverse vending machines, while a consistent approach also makes labelling clearer.
“Again, a Digital DRS scheme could enable glass to be collected and people could be rewarded, while still enabling people to recycle their bottles, cans and glass bottles and jars at home using existing kerbside collection scheme.
“The UK has the opportunity to become a world-leader in Digital DRS, introducing a lower cost scheme, that also makes sense for people to recycle in the convenience of their home.”
