Well…what an interesting few weeks its been for the waste industry, with major activity in some areas and – conversely - continuing inactivity in others….
The biggest story is of course around the Scottish DRS, which has now been further delayed from March 2024 to October 2025 to be brought in line with the other three devolved nations, and additionally, with the removal of glass.
The UK government’s reasoning is that they want to develop a UK wide system, which collects the same materials across the borders in order to make it easier for consumers. However, the Scottish government see this as a huge blow, and have accused the government of being “more intent on sabotaging this Parliament than protecting our environment”.
The delays have resulted in huge kick backs from producers and others who have invested millions of pounds into the proposed scheme, and it is reported that some producers are also considering taking legal action out against the Scottish Government.
Other industry stakeholders are however of a different view. The National Federation of Independent Retailers have said that
“As planning has not progressed well in Scotland, we can see the case for dropping the ambitious objective of including glass from the very beginning”
and the Food and Drink Federation have stated
“We hope governments across the UK will now take the time provided by this delay to go back to the drawing board on their waste reform proposals to ensure that everything including consistent collections, DRS and EPR can be delivered successfully, learning the lessons from the collapse of the DRS scheme in Scotland”.
The view of LARAC members however – which was communicated to government in both the 2019 and 2021 consultations – is that DRS should not be considered until Consistency and EPR have ‘bedded in’ and the outcomes are known. The implementation of DRS across the four nations will cost hundreds of millions of pounds, and this money would be better spent on supporting the already excellent kerbside collections of DRS material and funding more litter campaigns.
So, the flurry of activity in the last few weeks around the DRS issue, is in stark contrast to absence of any activity regarding the consistency reforms.
Attending the Lets Recycle Conference the day after the Scottish DRS announcement, it was clear that all stakeholders within the room, whether they were from Local Authority, retail or waste processing all want the same thing – detailed information and clarity of the consistency agenda. No one can move forward without it.
DEFRA were notably absent, and calls for further information have been largely ignored. So there was an understandable sense of frustration within the room, but also a sense of unity, over a shared urge to move things forward, and - dare I say it - a consistency within our views….
So I send another plea out to DEFRA to provide some information as soon as possible, as two years after we all worked around the clock to provide evidence, information and opinions on the consultation, we deserve some answers.
