Dave Dalton is Chief Government of British Glass.
With the Prime Minister and her Authorities now in situ, the need to get on and ship an bold coverage programme that advantages British companies and shoppers alike, and tackles the fast pressures confronted by the nation, is ever obvious.
However as new ministers hit the bottom working, trying to stamp their mark on new briefs, it’s important that this doesn’t end result within the pausing or dropping of important coverage improvement undertaken by their predecessors, particularly the place this delivers development inside an trade coupled with clear, evidenced environmental advantages.
The glass trade within the UK has a longstanding and proud heritage, and we need to see that not solely proceed within the months and years forward, however thrive for generations to come back.
That’s the reason our trade has persistently referred to as for glass bottles to be excluded from proposed Deposit Return Schemes (DRS), and as a substitute seize and recycle these bottles alongside glass meals packaging as a part of improved, constant kerbside collections inside a world-leading system of Prolonged Producer Accountability (EPR).
Due to this fact, within the UN’s Worldwide 12 months of Glass, our trade was delighted to see British and Northern Irish governments decide to conserving all glass packaging inside EPR, and never a DRS.
That is undoubtedly the best transfer. Together with glass within the DRS would have perversely elevated carbon emissions, elevated plastic consumption, and would’ve been extraordinarily inconvenient to shoppers lugging heavy – and breakable – glass bottles again to return factors, which received’t all the time be situated near residence.
Sticking with recycling glass bottles at kerbside will ship a better recycling price, which is already at 74 per cent for glass, and goes to be higher for the environment. And it’s what the general public need: a latest YouGov survey has proven that over 70 per cent of persons are already glad with the present assortment system for glass packaging.
Nevertheless, there’s an actual drawback. While the British Authorities and Northern Irish Government have made the best name to maintain glass beverage bottles out of their schemes, Scottish and Welsh governments have in the meantime outlined their intention to incorporate glass bottles in theirs, regardless of clear proof to opposite, creating severe considerations about how DRS schemes will function throughout the UK’s inside borders.
The prospect of getting a number of, diverging schemes throughout the UK will pressure many drink companies to make robust selections, particularly smaller companies in Wales and Scotland.
One consequence is that it’ll drive up price. Having totally different schemes in Scotland and Wales would imply having to place totally different labels on drinks packaging in every nation. This might result in producers withdrawing merchandise from uneconomic markets – or switching to plastic packaging – which is able to hit each enterprise and shoppers exhausting with excessive costs and fewer alternative.
It can additionally result in better confusion over what could be recycled correctly, and the place, for shoppers. The Authorities’s ambition so far has been to introduce constant assortment at kerbside to minimise client confusion between totally different native recycling programs. Nevertheless, an inconsistent DRS will danger creating extra, not much less, confusion about easy methods to recycle correctly – particularly for these dwelling close to borders or travelling between international locations.
Lastly, it would enhance the danger of fraud. We all know from proof from different international locations that having a number of schemes with totally different supplies in scope will end in scheme fraud, and undermine the aim introducing such schemes within the first place.
The answer is evident. Maintaining glass bottles out of all Deposit Return Schemes within the UK, and as a substitute recycling glass bottles by means of constant and improved kerbside collections, will create a stage taking part in subject for producers of all sizes to promote in all markets with out further price or complexity, in addition to making it a lot simpler for shoppers to recycle their glass bottles.
It is a once-in-a-generation probability to get the UK’s waste and recycling infrastructure proper, and the supplies included within the scope of the longer term schemes is a essential piece in that jigsaw. With the brand new Prime Minister and her authorities in put up, sticking to the best choice will probably be important, as will working with counterparts in Scotland and Wales to try to discover options to the very actual considerations of enterprise and shoppers throughout the UK round interoperability.
The only resolution, essentially the most cost-effective resolution, and the answer that’s finest for our trade and surroundings alike after all could be for Scottish and Welsh governments to look once more on the proof, and transfer to excluding glass bottles from their respective schemes.
