An independent review has called on the Scottish government to “urgently re-evaluate” its plans to launch the UK’s first deposit return scheme in August next year.
The report found it would not be possible to launch a “fully functioning and compliant” DRS in the timeframe. It instead called on ministers to introduce a “soft launch”, which sources said would be confined mainly to major supermarkets.
The publication of the so-called Gateway Review, published on the same day the Scottish government released its budget plans to help the cost of living crisis, is the latest blow to the DRS rollout, which is due to be rolled out later in the rest of the UK.
The Scottish government has been forced to make massive changes to its plans. Yesterday, it emerged only major supermarkets would have to take part in scheme and even then not for almost three years, in another big scaling back of the proposals.
The Gateway Review, commissioned by the government, said it “urgently” needed to tackle problems with the over-ambitious scope of the scheme and also issues over its management. It claimed that the scheme administrator, Circularity Scotland, was “not yet able to make meaningful decisions” as the scheme was struggling in the transition between government ownership to a system run by the industry.
Elements of the damning report were redacted. “As a consequence of these issues, the Review Team finds that a fully functioning and compliant DRS cannot be in operation for the revised August 2023 schedule,” it said. “[Redacted] The Review Team believes that a ‘softer’ approach to DRS implementation should be pursued but further urgent activity would be required to consider, assess and agree this possibility.”
Scottish green minister Lorna Slater announced the latest changes to the Scottish government’s proposals to coincide with the publication of the report.
The latest climbdown follows claims from online retailers, including Amazon, that forcing them to take part in DRS would wreak havoc with deliveries, including emerging rapid delivery services.
“Having considered the concerns presented by online retailers regarding the takeback element of DRS, I am proposing to bring forward amendments to the regulations so that initially only the largest grocery supermarkets will be obliged to provide a takeback service; all other businesses will be exempt,” said Slater.
“In addition, the takeback obligation on those supermarkets will be phased in: we will set a date for takeback to be available to the general public in 2025.”
Amid fears that the August start date could see DRS descend into chaos, the government has announced a series of sweeping moves to scale back the original ambition of the scheme. Earlier this week, scheme administrator Circularity Scotland announced producer fees would be slashed by up to 40% in what it called a “very significant” reduction of the costs of the rollout.
Meanwhile tens of thousands of small retailers have also been told they can opt out of the scheme.
The moves are likely to have major implications for the rollout of DRS in other UK countries.
In May, The Grocer revealed online retailers had warned plans to include them in the rollout of deposit return schemes would cause chaos to operations and blunt the speed of emerging rapid delivery services.
An official report, prepared for the Welsh government, claimed Amazon deliveries could be delayed by up to 20 seconds on each delivery, which when multiplied by large numbers of deliveries each day would cause significant delays and require more drivers, causing major environmental harm.
Slater said the government would be carrying out research to see how it could offer DRS to people who would struggle to access physical return points and reverse vending machines.
“I intend to undertake further work to identify how elderly and disabled people, who may not be able to get to a physical return point, will be protected during this phasing-in of takeback and also to investigate further steps that may make the takeback obligation easier to discharge,” she said.
WSTA CEO Miles Beale said the report was proof the Scottish government did not understand the impact DRS would have on businesses.
“The report endorses what businesses have been telling the Scottish government for months,” he said. “Even at this stage, detail about how the scheme would work is absent, and the Scottish government are making further changes to the legislation, causing confusion and chaos amongst businesses who are unable to prepare or comply – let alone in time to constantly moving deadlines.
“From the outset, the WSTA has argued that the best way to improve glass recycling rates is to improve kerbside collection, rather than introduce a new and complex regime, which is costly and will mean increased costs for producers and consumers, potentially resulting in reduced consumer choice.
“We agree with the review team that it is not possible to have a DRS in Scotland by August next year. Until the Scottish government restarts talks with affected businesses – and in a serious manner – the goal of a functional DRS scheme will remain out of reach. To date, all that those in charge of its delivery have demonstrated is that they do not understand how businesses operate.”
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