ACS 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.