Reacting to the industry concerns, UK ministers have excluded glass from English and Northern Irish schemes shortly before granting Scotland a key exemption to internal market rules.
Scotland's scheme is due to start in March while other UK nations will launch similar schemes in 2025. In order to do this, the Scottish government needed an exemption from the Internal Market Act - legislation introduced after Brexit to ensure smooth trade across the UK.
The UK government granted this on Saturday (27), but it only covered PET plastic, aluminium and steel cans. Ministers said they wanted to ensure the Scottish scheme "aligned" with plans in other nations.
In a letter to the first minister on Friday night, they said including glass "would have created a potentially permanent divergence from the schemes planned for England and Northern Ireland".
“We now need clarity from governments across the UK how they plan to implement DRS so we can prepare. The best outcome for local shops and our supply chain partners would be for an aligned introduction of DRS across the UK," he said.
The Scottish Wholesale Association has welcomed the news that the UK Government has agreed to a conditional IMA exemption. We see this as a positive move in the delivery of a successful Scottish DRS next year and its future expansion UK-wide.
“Our members trade in a UK-wide drinks industry and supply chain. As members of Circularity Scotland (CSL), we’ve been proactively working to ensure Scotland’s scheme is effective and goes live as designed by the Scottish Government. However, we have argued for several years that a UK-wide approach made more sense and that including glass increased costs and complexity," Colin Smith said.
“Glass inclusion is currently the main difference between the Scottish and English schemes so it represents a major change. This move will be particularly welcomed by licensed wholesalers who are wine and spirits importers and treated as producers under DRS regulations. This will also massively reduce the numbers of SKUs affected for all wholesalers.
“While the UK Government’s late timing of this announcement is disrespectful to all the businesses which have been waiting for this confirmation, it’s now critical that the Scottish and UK governments work together, and with those affected businesses, at pace to ensure that the Scottish scheme can go live smoothly next spring and the UK-wide schemes can work as seamlessly as possible in future.
“We know there has been considerable effort and investment put into plans for glass to be included. It cannot be beyond the wit of both governments to find ways in which that infrastructure and investment might be channelled to assist glass recovery outwith the DRS," Smith said.
The UK Government’s policy statement is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/scottish-deposit-return-scheme-uk-internal-market-exclusion/policy-statement-scottish-deposit-return-scheme-uk-internal-market-exclusion
