Environmental campaigners are calling on the Welsh government to introduce a 10p deposit on bottles, cans and cartons.
Charity Friends of the Earth Cymru said it could help to reduce litter.
Earlier this year, a report for the Scottish government said there were no major obstacles to introducing a “deposit refund scheme“.
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Environment Richard Lochhead
The Welsh government said it was working with its Scottish counterparts, which is carrying out a feasibility study, to see whether such a reverse vending machines scheme would work here.
Gareth Clubb from Friends of the Earth said other countries had used reverse vending machines to take back material.
” Reverse vending machines are in supermarkets, petrol stations, all around the place – it’s very convenient to take their bottles and cans back,” he added.
Friends of the Earth said very small retailers would likely be exempt.
In an internal document obtained by BBC News, the charity Keep Wales Tidy, which advises the Welsh government, said “the time is now right” for the consideration of a deposit return scheme.
Similar schemes have existed in the past, with deposit schemes for Corona pop bottles, made in Rhondda Cynon Taff, and Lowes of Cardiff.
Consumers of Irn-Bru can still take empty glass bottles to shops for cash
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Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Environment Richard Lochhead
IKEA Reverse Vending Machine gives 10p reward for each used IKEA drink can or bottle returned through a Reverse Vending Machine
(L-R) Sofie Rogers, Store Sustainability Responsible (IKEA); Richard Lochhead, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Environment; Iain Gulland, Director Zero Waste Scotland; Sean McArthur, Food Manager and Sustainability Manager (IKEA) in front of a reverse vending pilot project for glass , aluminium and PET at the Edinburgh IKEA store.
Almost four out of Five Scots back the introduction of a Deposit refund Sytem
UK Deposit Alliance
CPRE calls for UK-wide deposit scheme
British Library Conference Centre, central London
The UK Deposit Alliance will provide a focus for the many groups, individuals and policy makers interested in the potential of a UK-wide deposit refund system for drinks containers.
Used in Europe for over five decades, In most cases Reverse Vending Recycling Systems are used in markets that have deposits on beverage containers, offering a highly efficient method of identifying the deposit amount of each container returned and providing a refund to the customer, .
The opportunities and threats presented by a deposit scheme tend to polarise the debate. The Alliance seeks to present a balanced view of these positions and provide up to date information for discussion and conversation.
Members can submit information, ideas and arguments for dissemination and feedback.
This launch event will provide the latest thinking on how a deposit scheme could work in the UK and how the existing system in Germany runs using a free market approach, highlighting both the benefits and difficulties encountered.
Zero Waste Scotland will share the background to its work delivering a deposit pilot scheme for the Scottish Government and some of the preliminary findings.
And we will hear from Retorna, which will premiere the results from its pilot scheme that has run throughout Catalunya, concluding on 30th June. Insights on the success of the scheme will be shared, including the political context, the effects of extended producer responsibility legislation and the impact on the existing Green Box recycling scheme.
Conference attendees will have the opportunity to contribute to the conversation and share their own thoughts and concerns about how the scheme could work, what benefits there might be – for the economy, the environment and society – and what the unintended consequences, both positive and negative, might be for their industry or sector.
It is coordinating the launch of the UK Deposit Alliance in London (10 July), where speakers from across Europe will highlight, what they describe as, the benefits of drink deposit schemes. The group argues that small deposit on drinks containers increases recycling revenue and quality, creates jobs and eradicates litter.
Full time jobs
In a statement, the CPRE said: “By putting a small deposit on each container, people are given the incentive to return their bottles or cans rather than throwing them away, in order to redeem it. Implementing a UK-wide scheme could lead to 3,000-4,300 full-time equivalent jobs being created across the country.
“At the launch event, results from a comprehensive pilot project in Catalunya, which ended 10 days ago, will be presented for the first time and preliminary findings from eight pilot projects in Scotland will also be shared.”
CPRE Stop the Drop campaign manager Samantha Harding said: “With millions of drinks containers made from finite resources sold every year in the UK, many of which end up as litter on land and at sea, we should do everything we can to capture them for recycling.
“We need people to know these containers are valuable, not to be freely discarded. A small deposit on each container has been shown to work well in other countries, creating jobs and keeping our countryside, towns and seas cleaner – why can’t we do it here?”
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http://www.cpre.org.uk/
http://www.reversevending.co.uk/
Northern Ireland are also looking at a Deposit System
A “money back” recycling scheme, in whichused drinks containers are exchanged for cash, could be re-introduced in Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland’s Environment Minister Mark H Durkan said it could help to reduce litter and boost recycling.
He said a deposit scheme, where the public received 10p for each glass bottle they returned, had operated in Northern Ireland in the past.
The minister is awaiting the results of similar pilot projects in Scotland.
‘Potential costs’
Over the last two years, the Scottish government has been exploring how a Deposit Return System (DRS) for drinks bottles and cans could work within its jurisdiction.
It asked Zero Waste Scotland to commission a feasibility study, the results of which was published last month.
The Scottish research found there were no major obstacles to a DRS recycling scheme, but industry leaders issued a warning about the potential costs to businesses.
Mr Durkan has now asked his own officials in Stormont’s Department of Environment to begin work on a feasibility study in Northern Ireland.
“It’s something I’ve been thinking about since I actually took up my ministerial role nearly two years ago now,” Mr Durkan told BBC Radio Foyle.
“I’m always keen to explore ideas about how we move towards a zero waste society, which is my ultimate ambition and I believe that’s an ambition which should be shared by all of us.”
Mr Durkan said he believed the ending of the previous cash-back bottle recycling scheme in Northern Ireland was cost-driven, because “advances in production” methods had reduced the price of manufacturing drinks containers.
‘Back to go forward’
However, he said the public and businesses were now more aware that cheaper production methods could mean long-term costs for the environment.
“We, as a society, have changed a lot over the years,” the minister said.
“We haven’t always changed for the better and I think it’s important that we do everything we can to change for the better again, and if that means going back to go forward, I’m certainly prepared to do that.
“We know a lot more about recycling now, we know a lot more about the damage the practices we have been carrying out over decades and centuries have been doing to the environment.”
In a statement, Mr Durkan’s department said the proposed system would accept the “broadest range of materials and the suggested deposit would be between 10p and 20p, depending on volume”.
“Deposits would be returned manually by retailers or through automated reverse vending machines,” it added.
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Reverse Vending www.reversevending.co.uk
