The Welsh Government has announced plans to accelerate the implementation of its DRS scheme ready for launch in October 2027 when the rest of the UK goes live. But the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) has criticised Wales’ plan to include glass within the scope of its scheme on a ‘reuse’ basis where bottles are returned to be refilled rather than recycled.
The rest of the UK is set to introduce a deposit return scheme for plastic, aluminium and steel drinks containers in October 2027, and has appointed UK Deposit Management Organisation Ltd (UKDMO) to make the scheme work.
Tackling glass bottle littering is central to Wales’ plans, with surveys by Keep Wales Tidy in 2023-24 showing drinks-related litter was present on 43.6% of Welsh streets, with the presence of glass bottles more than doubling in four years. The Welsh government claimed that broken glass posed growing safety risks, especially in parks, play areas, and coastal locations.
However, ACS highlighted figures from British Glass, which show that glass is already one of the most recycled forms of packaging in the UK, with around three quarters of all glass being recycled. ACS accused the Welsh government of creating friction in UK-wide supply chains by apparently requiring drinks sold in glass to be produced in Welsh and non-Welsh versions. ACS also claimed that the glass reuse initiative would introduce operational differences for Welsh retailers, who would have to collect glass bottles separately and keep them whole for collection and re-filling.
Last month, the Welsh Government rejected the UKDMO’s offer to align with the wider UK scheme, which included a separate trial reuse scheme in Wales, and decided to push ahead with its own scheme despite the original justification for not being part of a UK-wide scheme being that they wanted to focus on reuse.
ACS Chief Executive James Lowman said: “We have learned over the last decade of talks and trials on the introduction of a deposit return scheme that the operation of the scheme is complex. This becomes exponentially more challenging when there are fundamentally different approaches in different parts of the UK. Today we have seen welcome alignment around the treatment of all materials except glass, but the inclusion of glass in Wales and of an entirely different model to that being used elsewhere in the UK will promote a host of questions about how retailers will collect glass bottles, with no answers available yet.
“ACS and our members are fully committed to making a DRS scheme work despite significant operational challenges. This unnecessary operational complexity and uncertainty leaves businesses running and supplying shops in Wales confused and frustrated.”
ACS and a host of industry groups are continuing to urge the Welsh Government to align the details of its scheme with the rest of the UK, and to consider trialling glass reuse schemes alongside a consistent UK-wide scheme instead of regulating for the introduction of a parallel scheme.
