Serious concerns are being raised over proposals to include glass bottles in the forthcoming Scottish deposit return scheme for drinks containers. Due to be introduced in Scotland following new legislation, the DRS is aimed at making it easier for everyone to recycle their used drinks containers. According to the latest statement from British Glass, however, waste and drinks industry experts say the inclusion of glass bottles in the scheme is a mistake and will lead to unintended environmental consequences.

It is suggested that similar recycling deposit return schemes in other countries such as Germany, Finland and Croatia that have included glass have led to brands and consumers making a dramatic shift away from glass in favour of plastic packaging for their products.

This shift towards plastic, which saw a 60% increase in consumption in Germany, was the critical reason for a proposed DRS recently being scrapped in France.

The current plans also risk dealing a body blow to existing kerbside and bottle bank recycling systems which together currently collect 67% of all glass bottles and jars for recycling in the UK.

Dave Dalton, CEO of British Glass, commented: “We support a deposit return scheme that significantly increases recycling and the reuse of resources but under the existing plans, which include glass, this is not the case. There is a real danger that the proposed scheme in its current form will become counter-productive, leading to an actual increase in single use plastic and threaten the viability of current kerbside and bottle bank glass recycling.”

www.britglass.org.uk