The Welsh government is understood to be on the verge of appointing Exchange for Change as scheme administrator for its deposit return scheme within days or weeks – but is holding firm on plans to include glass.
Welsh cabinet minister for environment Llyr Gruffydd told a Senedd debate yesterday he was “optimistic” that a deposit management organisation (DMO) would be announced “in short order”, saying that the government was having constructive discussions.
While he did not name names, it is understood Exchange for Change, which has already been appointed by the Westminster government to run its DRS, is the only bidder on the table to run the Welsh system.
Drinks bodies and retailers have warned the government time is running out to appoint a DMO if Wales is to be part of an October 2027 rollout of DRS.
“I’m optimistic that we will bring this to a positive conclusion in short order,” said Gruffydd, who added that an effective DMO was a “critical milestone”.
However, the Plaid Cymru MP made it clear the party would not bow to calls for glass to be excluded from the scheme, despite calls from Conservative and Reform MPs, as well as the vast majority of the drinks and retail industry.
While he said glass would be included in the scheme “pragmatically” and “when feasible”, he said that stripping it from the proposals would only lead to more delays.
“Reopening the fundamental elements would only create further uncertainty and certainly delay the implementation date,” he said, adding that Wales had a duty to build on its leading record on recycling and build a system that had reuse at its heart, rather than recycling.
He also criticised industry claims that including glass would add huge costs to the scheme, with bottles up to 50p more expensive, as “inaccurate”, saying they were based on exaggerated estimates of the potential cost of fraud.
He added that other countries, such as Finland, which has a much longer border with other countries than Wales, had shown it was possible to build “interoperable” systems with other countries even if they were not “identical”.
Conservative Welsh MP Janet Finch-Saunders, who put forward a motion calling on glass to be excluded and for the DMO to be urgently appointed, accused ministers of “ignoring” warnings from the industry and attacked delays in appointing Exchange for Change, despite it being the only bid on the table.
She asked if Plaid Cymru thought “it could do a better job”.
Miles Beale, chief executive of the Wine & Spirit Trade Association, said time was fast running out for the government to salvage the scheme.
“Unfortunately, politics has once again been put in front of common sense and rather than work with industry to make the scheme a success, the blinkers are on and we are heading for yet another fall off the precipice,” he said. “It appears that no one has learnt lessons from the failed Scottish DRS, and Welsh DRS is headed down the same disastrous path.
“We have a very short window of time for the new government to work with industry to develop a scheme that can be delivered and that supports businesses, consumers and the environment.”
The WSTA warned that the Welsh government’s environmental claims for the scheme were losing credibility: funding for kerbside bins and return points has not been agreed and the scheme incentivises a move away from glass. This will increase emissions, and the glass collection target is only 70% in 2028, a 20% fall from the current standard.
It said non-drinks containers such as glass jars were set continue to be collected at the kerbside, creating greater inefficiency and costs, adding that some brands had revealed that the inclusion of glass would lead to withdrawal from, or significant reduction of, product lines sold in Wales.
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