On 25 November, the Deposit Scheme for Drinks Containers (England and Northern Ireland) Regulations 2024 was laid in draft form before Parliament. The scheme is proposed to be introduced by 1 October 2027. The draft regulations can be found here.
This follows last week’s announcement that the Welsh Government has exited the joint UK-wide Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) due to its desire to include glass drinks containers, which will not happen in the other three nations. Separate regulations for Scotland have previously been passed independently but are expected to align with the England and Northern Ireland regulations.
Since DRS was first proposed in 2018, LARAC has continued to argue that its introduction will bring limited improvement in overall capture rates at the expense of cost, both financially and regarding environmental impact and disruptive infrastructure. Without trials having been undertaken or updated impact and cost assessments since the original proposals based on pre-pandemic data, LARAC argues that the money could be better spent developing kerbside infrastructure and communication campaigns, similar to what has achieved high capture rates in Wales. LARAC believes that a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) should only be considered after implementing and evaluating Simpler Recycling and packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) policies. A DRS should serve as a solution only if these policies fail to achieve higher drink container capture rates.
Regardless of the progress of the introduction of DRS, local authorities still require clarification on how drink containers that remain captured in municipal waste streams will be covered financially. The draft regulations need to clarify this. These items are out of the scope of pEPR payments, and the draft regulations do not specify if or how local authorities can claim the deposit values on collected items.
Last week, LARAC issued a press release arguing that the scheme should be delayed until both EPR and Simpler Recycling have been embedded. You can read it here.
You can also read the letter (dated 26.11.24) from Mary Creagh, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defra, with an update on The Deposit Return Scheme Regulations here.
