Exchange For Change, the industry-led organisation delivering the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, has today (June 2) confirmed 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.
As a result of extensive industry consultation, engagement and research, Exchange For Change has set the RHF at:
• Manual return points – 3p per container
• Automatic return points
- Tier 1 – 5p per container, up to 225,000 in-scope items returned annually
- Tier 2 – 1.3p per container, for annual in-scope returns in excess of 225,000
Russell Davies, Exchange For Change CEO, said:
“We have taken onboard 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.
“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.”
The RHF will be reviewed early next year prior to the scheme going live, and it will continue to be reviewed annually to take account of new data available from producers and retailers, as well as to consider other relevant factors.
The annual review will use real data collected during operation of the scheme, which will build a profile of the RHF and factors that impact it, thereby ensuring the assumptions and data inputs become more robust every year.