Add your Community Voice to calls for DRS

We’re so sick of seeing the same old culprits polluting the ocean we decided to let everyone know about it. So – after we got our 2022 Brand Audit results – we called out the Dirty Dozen on their polluting ways all by naming and shaming them all over the White Cliffs of Dover.

But what can be done now?

In 2017, over 300,000 of you signed a petition calling the Prime Minister to introduce a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). The government listened and in 2018 made a commitment to put in place a DRS for England and to work with the Devolved Administrations to introduce schemes across the UK to tackle the plastic pollution crisis. After four years of dither, the scheme is now expected in 2024 at the earliest.

In the UK, we are using 38.5 million plastic bottles every single day and we struggle to recycle even half of those. That means, every year since the government’s commitment, 8 billion containers including plastic bottles, metal cans and drink cartons have ended up polluting the environment, that’s 32 Billion containers. (Reloop)

By 2024 that will a mean a massive 48 Billion extra containers choking our rivers, ocean and green spaces that could have been captured. The government is simply kicking the can down the road.

This can be prevented though if the government deliver on their promise of an effective all-in Deposit Return Scheme. The Scottish Government are leading the way with a scheme set to be introduced in 2023, the rest of the UK must to step up before they are left behind.

What is DRS?

Imagine it this way – you’re buying the contents, but renting the container.

Some of us remember taking pop bottles back to the shop for 10p pocket money. Well that’s the idea, with plastic, glass and metal drinks containers. So, you buy your usual fizzy drink and it’s 20p more expensive than it was before, but when you take the bottle back to the retailer and post it into the ‘reverse vending machine’ aka. the Deposit Return Scheme, you’ll get your deposit back.

Deposit Return Schemes have been proven to work across Europe. In fact, in Norway they manage to capture 97% of their single-use plastic bottles through an all-in DRS. This means high-quality plastic material is kept in ‘the loop’ which is much easier to recycle into different products, so less new plastic bottles need to be created. Win-win!

What do we want?

We want an effective ‘all-in’ Deposit Return Scheme that delivers the best outcome for the environment to be put in place now, not later.

Our 2018 extensive Bottle Monitoring research project found that 58% of bottles found on UK beaches would be excluded from an ‘on-the-go’ DRS. And the government’s own impact assessment found the net benefit of an all-in scheme would be £5.8bn, compared to just £282m for an ‘on-the-go’ scheme.

That’s why we need an all-in Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers of all sizes and materials including glass, not just small containers classified as ‘on-the-go’.

Of the items monitored from this year’s Dirty Dozen, it is estimated that a massive 55% could be captured through an ‘all-in’ Deposit Return Scheme.

How can you help?

Email your MP today. And share this blog and the links in it with your community so they can contact the local MP too.

There are 900 Plastic Free Communities across the UK. Our power is in our individual, community and collective actions. By using our powerful national voice we can help bring about change we need on a system level, to enable us to break through to deeper change on the ground.

JOIN THE DEMAND FOR ACTION ON DRS – TODAY