The Scottish government has published an analysis of its consultation into a Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland, with calls for convenience stores to be exempt prominent among retailers’ responses.
Retail organisations “were more likely” to say there should be exemptions for c-stores and food-to-go stores, while there was a widespread view that online retailers should be included in a DRS system, the results of the three-month consultation reveal.
In terms of the level of the deposit on containers, more than half of all the 3,200+ respondents suggested deposit levels of between 15p and 20p.
One of the main themes raised was the a Scotland DRS system should be part of a UK-wide, comprehensive approach to waste management. In addition, it should be ‘easy to use’ for all key stakeholders, including retailers.
Four main DRS costs were identified – refunding deposits; providing return points and issuing handling fees; logistics; and infrastructure and staffing associated with the scheme administrator. Three income streams were identified to cover the costs: sales of collected materials (if owned by the scheme); producer fees; and unredeemed costs.
A Scottish government spokesman said all the policy details would be announced before the summer.
The UK government launched its own DRS consultation on Monday (18 February).
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