Labour has an opportunity with the DRS; it’s time to take it

In 2006, Keep Wales Tidy published a policy document where we called for a mandatory deposit return scheme (DRS) for plastic, glass, and metal drinks containers to protect our landscapes from litter. 

It is now 18 years later, and despite the widespread support from campaigners, the public and industry, the UK is still without a DRS. With Labour recently securing its historic majority, they now have the clear opportunity to fix the mess we have been left with.

Despite no explicit mention of a DRS in the Labour party manifesto, Defra Secretary of State of State Steve Reed MP recently stated that creating ‘a roadmap to ... a zero-waste economy’ was a key priority for his department. This month, it was revealed the government intends to ‘review the suite of packaging reforms’, with Westminster officials committed to working with the devolved governments. These are positive signals, and it’s encouraging to hear that the waste crisis we face is being recognised by the new government.

And it is a crisis - recent data from our Keep Wales Tidy national litter surveys shows around a third of our streets have drinks related litter on them. That’s nearly 60,000 containers lying on pavements and roadsides in Welsh communities. We’ve also seen the rate of littered glass on our streets more than double in recent years; a trend that – without intervention - we don’t see changing any time soon. In England, drinks-related litter was found on 95 per cent of beaches surveyed, with glass being the third most common item collected, after plastic and cigarette stubs. The two million pieces of litter dropped in the UK daily means £1 billion is spent on litter clean up each year.

The enormous frustration I have is that much of this mess could have been easily avoided had we delivered on DRS as intended. But under the previous government we’ve seen multiple delays, the very questionable removal of glass from both England and Northern Ireland’s plans, and the short-sighted halting of the Scottish scheme. While I appreciate it’s important to do these things properly, this historic dithering and delay has not been about pragmatism, but political short-termism which actively has harmed our environment and our communities.

The reality is that these ideas are not new, nor are they particularly complicated.

Around 50 countries have already implemented a DRS, with 46 of those including glass; specifically, those that do not already have a returnable system in place for the material.

Finland and Denmark are often considered the best in class, with their ‘all-in’ models delivering high overall return rates of 97 per cent and 92 per cent respectively. In the UK, recycling rates currently stand at 82 per cent for aluminium cans; 76 per cent for glass bottles; and 59 per cent for PET plastic bottles.

We could do so much better than we’re doing, and, if we’re going to go to the expense of rolling out a UK-wide DRS, why would we not build the best scheme we can? If we’re to realise a more circular economy and the green growth that goes along with it, surely it makes sense to be as ambitious as we reasonably can be. And that means including glass.

That isn’t just my view, but also that of the public, with 86 percent of respondents to the UK-wide consultation agreeing a DRS with all materials should be implemented. Businesses such as Heineken, Diageo and Sainsbury’s thought the same too. Yet despite this support, the evidence was ignored, and a sub-optimal model was proposed for England and Northern Ireland, undermining the efforts of other nations, and needlessly limiting the long-term benefits of the scheme.

Thankfully, there is one government in the UK that is still looking to proceed with an all-in system, and that’s the model championed by Welsh Labour in Wales.

The Welsh Government has the clear ambition to establish a world-class all-in system here, something that I welcome. This model aligns with the initial scheme design (prior to England and Northern Ireland’s decision to remove glass), and it’s a model that could be easily reinstated and delivered UK-wide by 2027, ensuring interoperability and the level of ambition required by the challenges we face.

If Steve Reed MP and his colleagues wish to create a roadmap to a zero-waste economy, then the first step is clear - bringing England and Northern Ireland in behind Wales and Scotland, with an all-in Deposit Return Scheme in 2027. We have the roadmap, we have the evidence, and we have popular support; but do we have the political will to do what’s necessary?

No more delay, no more disruption. Labour has the opportunity to lead the change, to truly deliver for our communities, and to realise a greener, cleaner economy; it’s time for them to take it.