Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers: joint policy statement

Introduction

The UK government, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) in Northern Ireland, the Scottish Government, and the Welsh Government want to ensure that the UK has a world class collection and packaging system that champions the reduction and recycling of materials. By doing so, we will ensure that resources are kept in use for as long as possible, minimising the environmental impacts of packaging and maximising the contribution that packaging reform can make to Net Zero and the protection of our environment.

Across the UK, consumers purchase an estimated 31 billion single-use drinks containers each year – 12 billion plastic drinks bottles, 14 billion drinks cans, and 5 billion glass bottles. Yet current collection rates are between 70 to 75%, and a significant amount of these containers end up littered or in landfill. The UK government, DAERA in Northern Ireland, the Scottish Government, and the Welsh Government share an ambition to increase recycling rates of single-use drinks containers to at least 90%, to significantly cut littering, and to expand opportunities to collect and reprocess high quality materials.