The Government has set out plans to introduce a deposit return scheme for drinks bottles and cans from 2025.
The scheme would use ‘reverse vending machines’ where drinks containers are returned in exchange for cash. Ministers have said that, in most cases, these would be located in places selling the products covered by the scheme. The announcement comes following a consultation which showed 85 per cent of respondents favoured setting up the scheme.
Every year UK consumers go through around 14 billion plastic drinks bottles and nine billion drinks cans. Many of these are littered or condemned to landfill. The deposit return scheme aims to incentivise recycling and reduce littered and discarded containers by 85 per cent in its first three years.
Commenting on this Andrew Jones MP said: “This is another positive step following last week’s announcement on a far-reaching single-use plastic ban and the Plastic Packaging Tax introduced last year.
“The UK’s plastic recycling rate is around 70 per cent. Countries such as Germany, Finland and Norway, who already operate similar schemes, achieve over 90 per cent. I hope this will close that gap.”
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