As this my first blog of 2023, I’d like to wish everybody a belated Happy New Year, and hope that it will be a successful one for you all.
I hope you are all managing to keep warm and carry on the day job in this very cold weather and all of the operational challenges it brings with it. I for one am definitely not a fan of the cold and I am looking out of my window hoping to see the first few signs of Spring now that we are nearing the end of January.
Nothing on the first signs of Spring at the moment, however, last week we did see the first signs of the remaining consultation responses from DEFRA!
As promised the government’s response on ‘Introducing a Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland’, was published and although there are not any big surprises, it certainly provides some more questions and issues that need to be addressed.
In the response to the second consultation on DRS in 2021, one of LARACs key messages to government was:
“the commitment to implementing a DRS and the potential design should be deferred until the consistent collections and EPR policies have been implemented and the impacts of the plastics tax realised. This would allow time for these policies to work and see if they deliver the desired increases in recycling before determining whether a DRS is needed”.
This was felt by LARAC to be a key point, firstly due to the fact that kerbside collections are very effective at collecting DRS material, and these would be impacted with the introduction of a DRS and secondly, the implementation of a DRS scheme is very expensive, and could be a waste of money if found to be ineffective.
There is also more research to be done on digital DRS, in addition to the trials currently being run in Wales. Digital DRS has the potential to maintain kerbside collections of DRS material, thus avoiding the cost of expensive infrastructure, whilst potentially increasing material capture and recycling rates.
Another key concern is how Local Authorities redeem the deposits for DRS material placed into their kerbside collections. This process needs to be clear and simple in order for LAs to easily access this money, especially as LAs are likely to lose income from DRS material that is being diverted from the kerbside to DRS vending machines and manual return points.
LARAC will continue to engage with DEFRA around all these issues and other aspects of the proposed scheme to continue to put forward members views and lobby on their behalf.
We will also continue (along with the rest of the industry) to wait with baited breath to see the outcome of the consistency response.
Watch this space!
