It also confirmed that glass will be included in the Welsh version of the scheme, with bottles being returned to be refilled rather than recycled.<\/p>\n
The inclusion of glass was criticised by the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS), which argued that this means retailers will have to collect glass bottles separately and keep them intact for collection and re-filling.<\/p>\n
The ACS added that the system in Wales also creates \u201cfriction in UK-wide supply chains by requiring drinks to be sold in glass to be produced in Welsh and non-Welsh versions\u201d.<\/p>\n
This week\u2019s announcement from the Welsh government comes after the UK Deposit Management Organisation offered to align the Welsh scheme with the rest of the UK, an offer that was turned down.<\/p>\n
James Lowman, chief executive of the ACS, said: \u201cWe have learned over the last decade of talks and trials on the introduction of a deposit return scheme that the operation of the scheme is complex.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis becomes exponentially more challenging when there are fundamentally different approaches in different parts of the UK.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, we have seen welcome alignment around the treatment of all materials except glass, but the inclusion of glass in Wales and of an entirely different model to that being used elsewhere in the UK will promote a host of questions about how retailers will collect glass bottles, with no answers available yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cACS and our members are fully committed to making a DRS scheme work despite significant operational challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis unnecessary operational complexity and uncertainty leaves businesses running and supplying shops in Wales confused and frustrated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not everybody agreed with the ACS. Travis Way, managing director at EcoVend, part of international circular economy specialist Reconomy, said:\u201cIt\u2019s good to get clarity from the Welsh government that they\u2019re committed to delivering their own deposit return scheme in line with the wider UK timeline of October 2027.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis gives vital direction to drinks manufacturers, retailers and the wider waste sector as they prepare for implementation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe welcome the decision to keep glass in the scheme, and we look forward to supporting businesses across Wales to manage glass returns in a safe and suitable manner \u2013 helping to ensure the system works well for both consumers and industry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It also confirmed that glass will be included in the Welsh version of the scheme, with bottles being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-255768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114833786433585556","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}