ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has responded to the
Welsh Government's consultation on the introduction of a Deposit
Return Scheme (DRS) in Wales, warning that glass cannot be
included in the scheme and must be considered separately.
The Welsh Government is attempting to introduce a deposit return
scheme that includes plastic, aluminium and steel containers, as
well as glass containers being included in the scheme but with no
deposit until 2030. During this period retailers would still be
required to have the infrastructure to accept glass returns and
incur the costs of offering that service, but there would be no
financial incentive for consumers to return them to store, and
there are no current plans to stop glass recycling collections
from people's homes in Wales.
The Welsh Government proposals seek to use the infrastructure of
a deposit return scheme to increase the reuse of glass. In its
submission, ACS recognises the ambition for wider reuse of glass
in Wales, but has made it clear that glass cannot just be added
in to a deposit return scheme and requires a fundamentally
different approach. ACS has called on the Welsh Government to
consider glass reuse entirely separately from DRS, and to align
its scheme with the rest of the UK.
The rest of the UK is set to introduce a deposit return scheme
for plastic, aluminium and steel drinks containers in October
2027, and has appointed the UK Deposit Management Organisation
(UKDMO) to manage the operations of the scheme. Despite not yet
having a DMO in place, the Welsh Government also aims to
introduce its own scheme in October 2027.
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “The Welsh Government are
by their own admission working to accelerated timescales on the
introduction of DRS, attempting to put in place a more
complicated system than one that has taken over a decade to get
right in the rest of the UK. Glass re-use operates totally
differently from a DRS for other materials, causing additional
problems for retailers, colleagues and customers, reducing the
availability of products, making the entire scheme unnecessarily
expensive to manage and creating a host of issues for supply
chains spanning the Wales / England border.
“We again urge the Welsh Government to align with the rest of the
UK on the introduction of a consistent deposit return scheme that
has the best chance of being workable, effective and sustainable,
and then consider a separate approach to the wider reuse of
glass.”
Figures from British Glass show that glass is already one of the
most recycled forms of packaging in the UK, with around three
quarters of all glass being recycled.
In the submission, ACS has also warned that if the Welsh
Government insists on proceeding with the scheme in its proposed
format, the total fee that retailers receive for handling returns
must be higher than that in the rest of the UK, reflecting the
additional complexity of the scheme in Wales.
ACS' full submission to the consultation is available
here:https://cdn.acs.org.uk/public/ACS
Response to Welsh Governement Consultation on DRS - November
2025.pdf
