Deposit Return Scheme

We are introducing a deposit return scheme for drinks containers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland are working on their own DRS and regulations were passed by Parliament in May 2020 for the scheme to begin in 2022. Reported recycling rates of plastic drinks bottles, drinks, cans, and glass bottles are around 70%. This tells us that valuable recyclable material is being lost to landfill or incineration - or, worse, ends up in the open environment where it can have a serious impact on ecosystems and local people. The objectives of introducing a DRS are therefore to reduce the incidence of littering, increase the collection and recycling of drinks containers, increase the quality of material collected and encourage positive changes in consumer behaviour. A 2018 report into drinks container recycling and litter reduction, commissioned by Defra from the Voluntary and Economic Incentives Working Group, found that plastic drinks bottle collection/ recycling in some European countries with a DRS and some form of kerbside/household recycling collections can be as high as 95-98%. It also found that some rates of collection/recycling of aluminium, steel and glass drinks containers in countries with a DRS can be between 87 and 97%.