Wales’ decision to abandon the UK-wide Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) comes as no surprise to sustainability champion Trudy Davies.
The owner of Woosnam & Davies News in Llanidloes believes that the exclusion of glass in the UK DRS framework influenced the country’s decision to pull out of the scheme.
The Welsh government has now announced plans to develop its own approach, in favour of glass inclusion.
“Wales on record has one of the best recycling rates of any nation and I am not surprised that Wales has decided not to be included in the UK DRS. The Welsh scheme wanted to include glass bottles which is not included in the other scheme for England and Scotland, so I believe that they will wait and do their own scheme eventually, which will incorporate glass bottles,” explained Trudy.
She said two separate recycling schemes could create confusion for recyclers in Wales: “I completely understand that having a different system from the rest of the nations for retailers and especially consumers will lead to confusion. Consumers might even feel a bit cheated by Wales ‘No’ system, especially with the DRS being introduced in England and Scotland.”
The potential drawbacks of Wales implementing a separate scheme may result in further delays until the recycling initiative is fully rolled out, Trudy added.
Echoing Trudy, City of Sea, an environmental organisation on a mission to stop plastic pollution, said that the scheme has now “successfully lost the entire Welsh nation” after “flip flopping around on whether glass should be included”.
Jane Martin CEO of City to Sea said: “The Deposit Return Scheme is turning into utter chaos. A DRS which includes glass, plastic and aluminium is not a contentious issue amongst the public, with recent data showing that 77 percent agree the government should introduce an “all in” system. It now just seems to be policymakers who can’t agree on that view.
“With both Wales and Scotland backing a glass inclusive DRS, Labour needs to get on board to stop the scheme from crumbling all together.”
Trade bodies react to Wales withdrawing from the four nation approach to the DRS.
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