Co-leader of the Scottish Greens and Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity, Lorna Slater has provided an update on Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) to address industry concerns.
Writing in a letter made public on the Scottish Government publications site, Slater said the scheme will be a “major part” of the Scottish government’s efforts to cut emissions and build a more circular economy.
“It (the DRS) will reduce littering by a third and increase recycling rates of single-use drinks containers from the current rate of approximately 50% towards 90%,” Slater wrote.
Slater went on to highlight what she called the “notable progress” made by the scheme administrator Circularity Scotland, such as recruiting an experienced team to deliver the DRS and signed contracts with Reverse Logistics Group (RLG) for the scheme’s IT system and with Biffa for operations, logistics and plastics reprocessing.
She continued that Circularity Scotland has published details of the handling fees that will be paid to retailers operating a return point, specifications for reverse vending machines and the fees that producers will pay towards the scheme.
The administrator has also secured a “number of sites” across Scotland to deliver the scheme, including a recently announced recycling site in Aberdeen, Slater wrote.
Only the very largest producers (those making more than 10 million units per year) would be required to underwrite costs.
Slater continued: “In December, in response to feedback from producers, I wrote to the Net Zero, Energy and Transport committee, setting out further steps to make the scheme more efficient and reduce costs, while ensuring that environmental benefits are still delivered.
“This included a reduction in producer fees by Circularity Scotland by 8%, 30% and 40% than originally planned for glass, PET plastic and metal containers respectively.”
The MSP for Lothian also highlighted “a number of incorrect assumptions” made about the scheme recently. In her letter, she clarified that “only the very largest producers (those making more than 10 million units per year) would be required to underwrite costs”.
She also said that while Circularity Scotland is “strongly encouraging” producers to adopt a scheme logo on their labels, producers don’t have to change their labelling for the Scottish market and can continue to use existing barcodes. However, there is a payment for producers continuing to use an existing UK-wide barcode for sales in Scotland.
“Circularity Scotland has announced that day 1 payments for producers choosing to use their existing barcodes will be reduced by two-thirds – from 2.4 months of fees to 3 weeks of fees. A day 1 payment is not required from producers introducing a new barcode,” Slater wrote.
The MSP said that the Scottish government has announced proposals to bring forward amendments to the DRS regulations, which means that only the largest grocery retailers will initially be obliged to provide an online takeback service from 2025 onwards.
Circularity Scotland has announced that day 1 payments for producers choosing to use their existing barcodes will be reduced by two-thirds.
Slater also confirmed that the formal process for excluding the DRS regulations from the Internal Market Act is “well underway”.
She went on to say that the Scottish government are working closely with the UK Government to provide clarity on the issue of how VAT will be applied to deposits.
“Last week the Deputy First Minister wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to request that a decision be communicated as soon as possible, which we are now anticipating,” Slater confirmed.
The letter’s publication comes off the back of a UK minister speaking to the Scottish Mail on Sunday saying the DRS should be “paused” following business leaders raising concerns over the costs involved in setting up the scheme.
In the interview, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack urged the Scottish government to reconsider its DRS policy and instead wait for a unified approach with the rest of the UK.
