The Scottish Government has announced today (8th May) details of their plans for a deposit return scheme (DRS) in Scotland.
Based on the plans announced, the scheme would have a significant impact on small shops, with the Scottish Government mandating manual handling of returned packaging at small stores and ruling out an exemption for shops smaller than 280 sq m. This is despite committing in their Programme for Government in 2017 to address specific difficulties that small retailers will have under as part of the design of a deposit return scheme.
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “The Scottish Government is designing a deposit return scheme that won’t be safe, clean or practical for small retailers. Manual handling of packaging in small shops will lead to huge challenges, with a lack of space to store returned containers, hygiene problems from handling dirty containers, staff having to deal with hundreds of returned containers every day, and as a result queuing and disruption to the daily running of stores.
“Requiring all retail outlets, including small shops, to act as a return point is an inefficient approach - we continue to argue that return points should be strategically mapped based on consumer need and controlling the costs of operating this network. High streets and neighbourhood parades will needlessly be awash with multiple automated and manual return points unnecessarily burdening hard pressed retailers.”
Pete Cheema OBE, SGF chief executive said: “We are massively disappointed that smaller stores will not be exempt and that glass is being included within scope. The aim should be to create a system which benefits local shops and communities. We will fully engage with the parliamentary process to ensure we fully inform and influence MSPs on these key issues.”
Today’s announcement revealed that the scheme will include aluminium and steel cans as well as drinks containers made of glass and Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic with a 20p deposit.
The full document is available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/deposit-return-scheme-scotland-full-business-case-stage-1/
