Huw Irranca-Davies, Deputy First Minister And Cabinet Secretary For Climate Change And Rural Affairs
I have been engaging extensively with stakeholders to bring forward a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) that delivers for Wales. These include the drinks industry, retail and materials sectors, environmental organisations, and the UK Government-appointed Deposit Management Organisation (DMO), alongside colleagues in the UK, Northern Ireland, and Scottish Governments. These discussions have reaffirmed the importance of a DRS that delivers tangible benefits for Wales, while maximising interoperability across the UK.
Wales has a proud record of leading the way on recycling and our DRS is being developed to build on and not detract from this success. In planning these next steps, we are therefore focused on ensuring that it will complement the collective efforts households, businesses, local authorities, and industry partners have made across Wales. In doing so, we are drawing on the world’s best schemes, where reuse is already delivering real-world benefits for businesses and consumers alike.
I am grateful for the positive and constructive collaboration we have with industry, which is helping to shape the scheme in a way that is both ambitious and practical. While Wales has remained consistent with the previously agreed UK-wide approach, I have listened carefully to industry’s concerns about the risks that come about as a consequence of there no longer being a single approach that works for the whole of the UK. This is not a situation of the Welsh Government’s making, as it stems directly from decisions taken by the previous UK Government to depart from the agreed approach of a DRS that included glass. I recognise however the importance of taking action to avoid unintended consequences and take these issues seriously.
We have heard clearly from industry that the scenario where a scheme is introduced in the other parts of the UK, with no scheme in place in Wales, carries the greatest risk of operational complexity and associated costs. I have therefore set out to industry that we are willing to accelerate our implementation timetable to align with the rest of the UK, which would provide for interoperability between common materials.
Glass remains in scope of our scheme, as this means that in Wales, we will be able to begin to roll-out reuse as a core part of the scheme. It also means we can continue to improve glass recycling against our baseline performance - by improving on the go recycling - whilst tackling the littering of all forms of drinks containers. With surveys by Keep Wales Tidy in 2023-24, showing drinks-related litter on 43.6% of Welsh streets, with the presence of glass bottles more than doubling in four years, broken glass poses growing safety risks, especially in parks, play areas, and coastal locations. Tackling this issue is therefore central to our commitment to our communities and in line with the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act will ensure our scheme delivers for our communities and for the environment.
I recognise the need for clear arrangements to ensure there are no unintended consequences caused by the difference in scope. Specifically, industry have highlighted the need for a phased approach within which there would be no requirement to have different labelling and no fraud risk, as this would also prevent consequential impacts on current production and distribution arrangements. This represents a practical and pragmatic solution which we will therefore work to incorporate within the scheme.
Going forward, we will continue working closely with industry and local authorities to deliver a scheme that is simple, scalable and fair, one which supports businesses to take advantage of the opportunities of reduced material costs and ensures no one is left behind. In doing so I am conscious of the wider issues impacting upon the sector, particularly SMEs, and we are therefore working with them to ensure there are sensible arrangements such as exclusions for low volume products.
With independent analysis setting out that moving to a circular economy could unlock £3.8 billion in savings for the Welsh economy, while creating green jobs, driving innovation, and building resilience in key sectors — this is an important economic opportunity. In bringing forward a scheme that supports the roll-out of reuse, we are not only ensuring our DRS is future-proofed and will deliver tangible benefit for the people of Wales — we will also continue to play an important role in helping to shape a more coherent and sustainable approach for the whole UK.
For the DRS in Wales, reuse is not just an ambition — it is essential to delivering further progress. I welcome the positive approach from industry in working in partnership to deliver a better, greener future — not just for Wales, but for all.