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English DRS backed by MPs

The House of Commons has voted in favour of a deposit return scheme (DRS) for England and Northern Ireland, which will come into effect in October 2027.

DRS deposit return scheme
The English DRS was initially due to come into effect this year

In the vote, which took place yesterday (21 January), UK MPs (members of parliament) voted 352 to 75 in favour of the scheme, which will see customers able to claim a small monetary reward for returning single-use plastic, steel and aluminium empty drinks containers to a designated return point for recycling.

It has been reported that glass will not be included due to the ‘considerable up-front costs’ it would add.

The scheme had initially been intended to start in England this year, but was delayed last April until the now approved date of October 2027.

Meanwhile, Wales announced in November that it would move forward with its own DRS, despite initial plans to run a scheme in conjunction with England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, due to pushing ahead with glass bottles.

The decision to move ahead with the English and Northern Irish scheme comes despite calls from supermarket chiefs to postpone the launch of the DRS, claiming the proposed October 2027 rollout was “not feasible” and would inflict significant costs on retailers.

Tesco CEO Ken Murphy said that he hoped the government would agree to “manage and mitigate” both schemes “to the greatest extent possible” in a bid to minimise the financial burden on retailers.

“We would like to work with the government on some of the environmental legislation coming down the track such as EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) and DRS that could have significant cost implications for the industry,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s boss Simon Roberts echoed his concerns: “We’re very supportive of the ambition of those initiatives but we want to make sure that the industry can absorb the costs over the right timeframe to try to keep a lid on inflation,” said Roberts.

In a letter to environment secretary Steve Reed, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) detailed challenges that the scheme would inflict on retailers, such as significant costs, while also noting that the decision by the Welsh government to pull out of a joined-up UK launch risked the scheme not being effective.

Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said the government’s impact assessment estimated a £228 million (US$281.6m) per year net cost to businesses, which he described as “another unsustainable cost”, warning consumers would have to “bear the burden”.

Related news

Wales abandons UK-wide DRS

UK-wide DRS planned for October 2027

Scotland DRS likely delayed until 2027

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