Retailers have discovered the compensation they will receive for running the UK’s deposit return scheme, as handling fees are announced.
Exchange for Change, the not-for-profit body appointed last year as the scheme’s deposit management organisation, released the sums today.
It unveiled the fees that will be paid to return point operators when the scheme launches in October 2027.
The return handling fee (RHF) will operate on a tiered basis across manual and automatic return points, and will provide for small to large volumes of returned containers.
The body said that as “a result of extensive industry consultation, engagement and research”, the fees would be set at 3p per container for manual return points while there will be two tiers of fee related to automatic return points. For return points handling up to 225,000 items per year the fee will be 5p per container. For higher volume points over 225,000 items the fee is 1.3p.
“We have taken on board a wide range of feedback provided by retailers, producers and trade bodies, and established a return handling fee that reflects the complexities of the UK retail landscape and ensures the scheme remains in balance,” said Exchange for Change CEO Russell Davies.
“The UK’s retail landscape is unique in the world, spanning large supermarket chains, medium-sized franchises and a very high ratio of small and independent convenience stores comparative to other nations.
“This means the network of return points across the UK will be extensive, and the nature of collections will range from small convenience stores manually collecting and returning a small amount of containers, through to large multinational supermarket chains operating multiple reverse vending machines that collect several thousand containers each week at every store.
“The RHF reflects this diversity in our retail sector, and delivers a fair scheme for all.”
EFC said the fees would be reviewed early next year prior to the scheme going live, and it would continue to be reviewed annually to take account of new data available from producers and retailers, as well as to consider other relevant factors.
Today’s announcement and the reaction to it is set to be a key landmark in the rollout of the scheme.
The fees caused a major row in Scotland’s ill-fated scheme rollout when in 2022 retailers from the Scottish Grocers’ Federation revealed they were taking legal action against its DMO, Circularity Scotland, which was appointed by the Scottish government to run the scheme in 2021.
It claimed the fees would not cover the huge costs of the DRS rollout for many retailers and could potentially lead to the closure of thousands of businesses,
Scotland’s plans to launch the first DRS in the UK were later ditched, with retailer anger blamed as one of the key reasons for its downfall.
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