The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) have introduced a new cash incentive system this week, placing deposits on drinks bottles and cans, which will boost recycling from 2025.
The scheme will include special machines, known as reverse vending machines, and designated sites where people can return their bottles and receive their cash back. In most cases it will be the retailers who sell drinks covered by the scheme who will host a return point.
Every year UK consumers go through an estimated around 14 billion plastic drinks bottles and nine billion drinks cans, many of which are littered or condemned to landfill.
These plans build on efforts to eliminate avoidable plastic waste. Last week the UK government announced that a ban on single-use plastic plates, trays, bowls, cutlery, balloon sticks, expanded and extruded polystyrene food and drinks containers, including cups, will be introduced in England from October 2023.
Together, these two schemes will make a measurable difference to the amount of plastic waste and plastic litter that we find in storm drains, urban streams, rivers and oceans.
Stormwater Shepherds UK welcomes these changes in legislation and the introduction of these schemes, although it is a shame that it has taken so long to see them approved. And now we must wait again for them to be introduced. But we look forward to their effect, and to finding fewer plastic items on our riverbanks and beaches.
Hopefully, if the Deposit Return Scheme works well, it will encourage young people to return their bottles, and some enthusiastic youngsters may also collect littered items to earn a little bit more money.
Ask your local supermarket if they are going to take part; the more machines that are installed, the more successful it will be.
More information is available on the DEFRA website, here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/introduction-of-a-deposit-return-scheme-in-england-wales-and-northern-ireland
