On April 25th 2024 it was announced that a single deposit return scheme (DRS) would be rolled out across the entirety of the UK in 2027.
DRS in the UK was initially supposed to roll out in August 2023. This is the third time the scheme has been delayed, having been postponed to 2024 and 2025 previously.
To avoid any further delays, the UK needs to learn from the mistakes it and other countries have made when attempting to implement deposit return schemes.
Firstly, the UK must ensure that it is operationally ready for a DRS in 2027. This means ensuring collection infrastructure is sufficiently widespread and robust to handle the large volumes of packaging units being returned by UK consumers.
Netherlands’ DRS mistakes
The Netherlands did not invest sufficiently in collection infrastructure before expanding the scope of its scheme to include smaller plastic bottles and metal cans. This resulted in long queues at a limited number of collection points that were quickly overwhelmed.
Machines malfunctioned due to overuse and litter grew as frustrated consumers left containers in the vicinity of swamped collection points. The UK must learn from this failure and ensure collection infrastructure is sufficient in both quantity and quality and intelligently placed throughout the UK.
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By GlobalDataUniformity is key
Secondly, the DRS covering the constituent nations of the UK needs to be uniform in scope. One of the reasons for previous delays to DRS rollout in the UK has been different countries wanting to include different materials in their schemes.
Specifically, Scotland wanted its own DRS distinct from the scheme covering the remaining UK nations, and it wanted its DRS to cover glass bottles. DRS in England and Northern Ireland did not include glass bottles in scope. This resulted in a lack of interoperability between the Scottish and English/Northern Irish DRS.
This also threatened to fragment the UK beverage market in ways that UK beverage producers, whose drink container supply chains are designed for an unfragmented UK market, wouldn’t be able to adapt to without considerable effort and expense.
Containers that previously could be sold anywhere in the UK would have been confined to a smaller market, unless producers had the capital to transform their operations and adapt. This would have penalised small and medium-sized beverage producers and favoured larger brands.
Fragmentation
Unfortunately, the DRS that is intended to come into effect in 2027 will not be uniform in its scope: glass bottles will be subject to deposit in Wales and no other UK nation. Therefore, the same problem of a fragmented market remains, which could result in future delays or a dysfunctional system.
UK consumers also display a below-average willingness to participate in a DRS. According to our Q2 2023 global consumer survey, 66% of UK consumers said they either do or would participate in a DRS, compared to the global average of 79%.
DRS disincentives
The third of UK consumers who are disinclined to participate in a DRS cite inconvenience, hygiene concerns, and a low reward as the disincentivising factors. Therefore, in addition to achieving a uniform scope and investing sufficiently in collection infrastructure, the UK government will also need to educate its citizens about the benefits of a DRS and address their concerns for such a system to prove effective in 2027.
