Welsh Conservative Shadow Environment Minister Andrew RT Davies has told Plaid Cymru ministers to drop glass from Wales’ Deposit Return Scheme.
Mr Davies, who supports a scheme to increase the recycling of plastic bottles, said the system must be “as simple as possible” to encourage people to buy into it.
He said including glass bottles, which are already widely recycled by suppliers and consumers, is unnecessary and will create extra burdens for manufacturers.
The scheme will be introduced in all four parts of the United Kingdom, but Wales plans to include glass while England, Scotland and Northern Ireland do not.
Mr Davies warned that suppliers sell goods across Britain, and as such the same rules must operate UK-wide.
Mr Davies said:
“We all have a duty to reduce waste, and a deposit return scheme is a great idea to help prevent it.
“But including glass will create unnecessary burdens for the hospitality sector and consumers, as will operating different rules in different parts of Britain.
“The scheme will only work if it’s simple and proportionate – Plaid Cymru separatist ministers must remove glass and ensure we have a consistent system UK-wide.”
ENDS
NOTE: Further information on the scheme can be found here
https://research.senedd.wales/research-articles/deposit-return-scheme-regulations-in-brief
NOTE: Please find below the Senedd’s record of proceedings from Tuesday 22nd September
https://record.senedd.wales/Plenary/16262#C771101
Andrew R.T. Davies
17:51:02
Thank you, Minister, for your statement this afternoon. We on these benches do not believe that glass should be included in this scheme. It’s been a position we’ve taken for a long time and we just think it complicates the situation and actually adds confusion to it. And one thing that has to be crystal clear about any recycling scheme is that people have to understand it and buy into it, and the more you can simplify it, surely the better that has to be.
As someone who used to come down the link road into Cardiff Bay and see the massive landfill site that is by Grangetown there, one can really appreciate the steps that have been taken in recent years to make recycling an integral part of what we now all do, and the industry that’s been built up in recycling and reusing the products that we use in our everyday lives. That makes perfect sense, that does, and it’s something we should embrace and commend the previous Government for what it did in getting the recycling rates up. But I fail to see why the Government wants to carry on penalising the hospitality sector and bringing glass within the orbit of this scheme that it’s proposing. I’d like to know—I know you touched on it in your response to the Labour spokesperson—given that it was a 10-week delay in announcing the operator of the scheme, how are you going to catch up that 10 weeks, nearly three months, between now and next October, which is due to be the start date, to make sure that it does go live in October next year?
And the other thing that is really important is providing clarity on how the interaction between DRS and EPR will work. An exemption from the EPR fees for glass containers in the scope of the DRS is an essential precursor to the inclusion of glass. Although the Welsh Government have committed to this, they are yet to determine how the exemption will work in practice. This is particularly challenging given the difficulty in tracking where the container will end up for sale at the point it is placed on the market, as well as the different ways the producer fees for DRS and EPR fees are calculated, by unit or by weight. So, can you offer some clarity on that point, please, Minister?
And then, there’s resolving the regulatory uncertainty of the reuse. The reuse targets included within the regulations for the DRS are not currently compatible with the UK internal market Act, given that the exemption of this was not granted. How are you going to overcome that particular aspect? Because you need to be compliant with the UK Act, otherwise you’re going to be in the same position as Scotland found itself in. And maintaining accountability for post-transition periods. The transition period for glass, were it a 0 per cent deposit, is applied and there are no additional labour requirements, which will end in 2031. At this point, a number of issues will come to the fore, including: how the return of glass containers is managed within hospitality; the risk of fraud, of glass containers sold in other parts of the United Kingdom being redeemed here in Wales; the additional cost incurred by producers for other rolled-out glass return points; and how the aforementioned reuse targets will work in practice. So, some clarity on that. While you’ve got the four-year grace period, I think it’s really important that we understand how this will be actually implemented after that four-year period.
And the impact on hospitality, which is critical, because we all know; we hear, week in week out, people in this Chamber talking about the pressure in hospitality on the sectors in their own constituencies. Ensuring that pubs and bars and other hospitality venues are fully considered within the implementation plans, particularly given the cliff-edge of 2031. The Welsh Government must address operational impact specific to hospitality businesses, which have not always been adequately reflected in the policy development to date. How are you taking the hospitality sector with you, Minister?
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