The Welsh government has announced its decision to withdraw from the proposed UK-wide Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).

In a statement on issued Monday, 18 November, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, Huw Irranca-Davies, announced that the country is unable to move forward with the joint process at this time.

In April, the UK government announced that a DRS programme would be implemented by October 2027, though the new Labour administration has suggested it aims to accelerate this timeline.

The process has seen multiple disagreements between politicians and industry representatives from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland regarding the scheme's structure and the inclusion of glass.

"In partnership with the UK and devolved governments, we have been working to initiate a joint process to appoint the Deposit Management Organisation for our respective schemes later this month,” Irranca-Davies said.

"However, in the time available it has not been possible to address the issues to the operation of devolution caused by the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020, inherited by the UK government from the previous administration."

"This unfortunately means that we are not able to proceed with the joint process or notify the WTO in relation to the scheme at this point."

That said, Irranca-Davies clarified that the government remains committed to introducing a scheme that will benefit Wales and aid its transition to a circular economy.

"Our active engagement with industry has highlighted that there are currently a range of views on how best to achieve the transition to reuse,” he said.

"We will therefore continue our active engagement to develop a scheme that supports the transition to reuse for all drinks containers including those made from glass. In doing so we will also continue to draw from international best practice."

Each year, UK consumers use approximately 14 billion plastic drinks bottles and nine billion drinks cans, many of which end up as litter or in landfill.

A deposit return scheme could seamlessly integrate into daily life, making recycling more convenient, as seen in Germany, Finland, and Norway, where recycling rates exceed 90%. In comparison, the UK's current recycling rate for drinks containers is around 70%.

#Wales #DepositReturnSchemes #DRS