I recently attended the Westminster Energy, Environment & Transport Forum keynote seminar, Next steps for waste policy in the UK: implementing the Resources and Waste Strategy, reducing avoidable waste and challenges for a deposit return scheme, 2nd April 2019.  In this blog, I will amplify some of the key considerations around the Deposit Return Scheme and the challenge of inspiring people to change their behaviour. 

Chris Preston, Deputy Director, Resource and Waste, Defra, highlighted the two overarching objectives that guided Our Waste, Our Resources: A Strategy for England, which sets the path to shifting to a circular economy model:

• To maximise the value of resource use, and
• To minimise adverse environmental impacts

WRAP (the Waste and Resources Action Programme) define a circular economy as:

"An alternative to a traditional linear economy (make, use, dispose) in which we keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life."

One of the initiatives that Defra are currently consulting on is the introduction of a Deposit Return Scheme for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.  Chris Preston stated that Defra have not set out a preference for a model and that they are genuinely interested in hearing people's views on what would work, noting that, "Consultation is the life-blood of good government policy."

Deposit Return Schemes

A Deposit Return Scheme works by adding a deposit to the price of drinks at the point of purchase that can be reclaimed by the consumer when they return their empty container to a designated return point.  The purpose of the scheme is to incentivise consumers to recycle. 

Defra are currently seeking views on two options: all-in or on-the-go.  An all-in model would not place any restriction on the size of the drink container being recycled.  An on-the-go model would restrict the size of container to less than 750ml, looking to target drinks purchased on-the-go outside of the home. The consultation is open until 13 May 2019.  You can take their online survey here: https://bit.ly/2NauP38

Nick Brown, Head of Sustainability, Coca-Cola European Partners, advised that Coca-Cola are involved in approximately 40 Deposit Return Scheme's around the world.  He emphasised that, for a scheme to be successful, the public need to be at the heart of it. The reason for this is that consumers are being asked not to recycle at home, but to take their containers back to a point of purchase.  He highlighted that consumers shouldn't be penalised by the system, so a deposit should not be subject to VAT.  If someone pays 10p, they are refunded 10p.

He went on to say that competing or incompatible schemes are unadvisable; a single scheme with everyone collaborating has significantly more potential for success.  A scheme should be run as not-for-profit to avoid unintended consequences, such as operators seeking to gain from the system.  Adequate funding is essential to maintain the infrastructure and good governance should be built into the scheme through fraud control and transparency on performance. 

Nick Brown referred to the case study of the Deposit Return Scheme in New South Wales to warn against the dangers of a poorly designed scheme going live.  It was a rushed implementation that was run by a machine supplier.  It was not set up as a not-for-profit and wasn't properly funded.  Of the required 800 return points, the scheme went live with less than 50, which led to very poor consumer uptake. By comparison, the extremely successful scheme in Norway achieves recovery rates of 80 to 90%. 

Accessibility of collection points will be important to incentivise use but, as Edward Woodall, Head of Policy and Public Affairs, Association of Convenience Stores, pointed out, 71% of retailers do not have the space in their store for a machine.  This is because, while the point of collection can appear quite small and unobtrusive, the back-end hidden at the other side of the wall requires a significant amount of space.  He suggested that shops smaller than 280 SQM should be exempt from collection point machines. The Norwegian system facilitates collection at smaller stores by operating a bag system for manual returns. 

Incentives for Changing Behaviour

Iain Gulland, Chief Executive, Zero Waste Scotland, said that they learned very quickly that it's important to get it right.  Their research has found that people will do things differently for different items. 

Edward Woodall highlighted the plastic bag charge as an example of policy introduced to change consumer behaviour.  A Defra consultation on increasing the minimum charge of a single-use plastic bag to 10p closed on 22nd February 2019. He emphasised that the motivation for increasing the price should be informed by what it will achieve. He stated that consumer polling revealed that 56% of consumers would support an increase of the plastic bag charge from 5p to 10p.  The desired effect of an increase would be to incentivise more people to recycle their plastic bags.  However, of the consumers polled, while 41% indicated that an increase would prompt them to reuse existing bags, 26% said that they would still buy single-use bags, and a further 26% said that they would still buy some single-use bags but more bags for life (a total of 52%). 

For the Deposit Return Scheme to be successful, it will need to work for everyone.  Other countries operating schemes have had to find innovative solutions to promote recovery rates.  Some consumers will be happy to pay the deposit but not be bothered to redeem the deposit themselves.  In these instances, it can cause what Nick Brown refers to as "philanthropic littering", whereby bottles and cans are left on the streets for others to collect and be compensated for them.  To avoid this, facilities to place empty containers, such as public bins with a deposit shelf have been introduced.    

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Caitriona Fitzsimons Digital Reporter