The recent announcement by the Government that the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will be delayed until October 2027 has been welcomed by us at The Recycling Association. However, we suggest that this time should be used to consider whether DRS is required at all.
The Recycling Association is 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 at supermarkets. Instead, we advocate for time to be taken to assess whether a Digital DRS scheme can be introduced, 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 the lack of consistency around how it will be implemented across the UK. For example, Wales has decided that glass will be part of the scheme, but it will not be included in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
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 schemes.
I understand one of the reason soft drinks manufacturers are keen on DRS is because they believe that the quality of material they receive is not good enough, but they also want to ensure that they have control of that market.
We shouldn’t let them have that control, as that is taking valuable revenue from local authorities, waste management companies and recyclers and creates effective monopoly markets.
What we need to do is ensure we produce a very high quality material so that argument is removed. When combined with Digital DRS, it is a compelling argument to leave the existing system in place, because it is convenient for the public and they are used to recycling at home.
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. Let us use this delay as an opportunity to reconsider and explore the potential of a Digital DRS scheme.
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