The investment, made by British waste management company Biffa, is set to develop the infrastructure needed to for plastic, glass, and aluminium drinks packaging to ultimately be recycled back into new bottles and cans to use again. The Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), which is planned to go live from August 2023, will involve consumers paying a small deposit of 20p when they buy a drink in a single-use container and get their deposit back when they return the empty bottle or can.
Despite many larger drinks producers already signing up, small drinks producers in Scotland could be granted a year-long grace period from the DRS. In November last year, more than 500 drinks producers and hospitality operators signed an open letter calling for the Scottish government to pause and revise the DRS, warning of a potential “high-profile failure” if the project went ahead as planned.
The government has additionally announced a new target of October 2025 for the roll out of a DRS in England and Northern Ireland. Despite inroads made towards the DPS due this summer, reports from The Guardian have stated that the UK government is poised to block the Scottish recycling initiative.
Source: The Drinks Business
The post Scotland gains £80m investment towards bottle and can recycling appeared first on Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi.