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Deposit return scheme: This is how much money and plastic will be thrown away by the next 2025 launch date

Our counters reveal the millions of pounds wasted and plastic bottles dropped since the scheme was supposed to launch in 2022.

Plastic bottles floating in the sea - millions of bottles could have been captured by the DRS since it was first delayed
Millions of bottles could have been captured by the deposit return scheme since it was first delayed. Image: Shutterstock

The true impact of delays to the troubled “deposit return” recycling scheme in Scotland can be revealed in new figures published by the Press and Journal.

MSPs first backed the plan in a vote in parliament in 2020, but after a series of delays it could now be October 2025 before it is finally introduced at the earliest.

Under the plan, consumers will pay an extra 20p for drinks in single-use containers.

They get the money back by taking the empty cans, glass or bottles to vending machines around the country.

The timeline

What have the delays cost Scotland?

Starting from July 2022 – the first date the scheme was meant to be introduced in Scotland – the counters below show how tens of millions of pounds in indirect savings have been lost.

Government-funded environmental group Zero Waste Scotland says around £62 million a year could be saved tackling the indirect impacts of litter.

By October 2025 those savings would have totalled over £200 million.

The groups also says 44,000 fewer plastic bottles would be dropped because of the scheme, meaning millions more bottles have littered our streets as a result of the delays.

Catherine Gemmell, of the Marine Conservation Society, said following the delay that our seas would “continue to pay the price for our waste”.

She added: “Governments across the UK have been working on deposit return schemes for years, if not decades, yet sadly we are still no closer.

“We know schemes like this work. Progress on this scheme must continue so we can take control of these kinds of pollution amidst the climate and nature emergency.”

Kim Pratt, Circular Economy Campaigner, Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “It’s shocking that the deposit return scheme has been forced to delay again so close to its planned start date, after many years of preparation and significant financial investment.”

Holyrood anger

On June 13, MSPs accused Lorna Slater, the Green party minister in charge of the scheme, of being “disrespectful” over delays to a report on preparations.

Meanwhile, some businesses have threatened legal action in order to recoup the expenses preparing for the expected launch date.

Ms Slater said: “We are working with industry to launch the scheme and the matter of that sort of compensation is not part of the Scottish budget.”

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