London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 07, 2025

Scotland’s bottle and can return scheme in ‘shambolic’ mess

Scotland’s bottle and can return scheme in ‘shambolic’ mess

Legislation for compulsory scheme was passed by Holyrood in 2019 but there is no longer launch date, say ministers
Scottish ministers have been accused of making a “shambolic” mess of their bottle and can recycling programme after admitting they no longer had a launch date for it.

Scotland was expected to be the first part of the UK to introduce a compulsory bottle and can recycling scheme for retailers in July next year, but the Guardian revealed on Monday that the target date was expected to be scrapped.

Legislation for the scheme was passed by Holyrood in 2019, and it had been due to start in April this year. That was pushed back to July 2022 – a date embraced by the Scottish National party and the Scottish Green party in their election manifestos this year.

Lorna Slater, the Scottish Green minister in charge of delivering the scheme, confirmed on Wednesday that the government was now unsure when it would start and was urgently negotiating with retailers and producers.

John Mayhew, the director of the Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland, which leads the Scottish campaign for the scheme, said he was furious. “Four years ago we were promised a world-leading deposit return system,” he said. “Now Scotland looks like an object lesson in how not to deliver one of the world’s most basic and widely deployed environmental measures. Sad to say, we wouldn’t be totally surprised if it now never happened.”

Nina Schrank, a plastics campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said: “This shambolic delay to the long-awaited deposit return scheme is embarrassing for a government which loves to shout about its green credentials. Every year of delay means millions more bottles being dumped or burned.”

To derision from opposition parties, Slater said the chaos of Brexit, the problems faced by retailers during the Covid crisis and uncertainties about VAT charges on deposits had been obstacles to the scheme’s introduction.

She said the Treasury has confirmed on Tuesday that it believed VAT would need to be charged on deposits, and that would make the scheme – which is based on a 20p refundable deposit for each bottle and can – unaffordable. Slater said that was “deeply disappointing”.

Mercedes Villalba, Scottish Labour’s environment spokesperson, pressed Slater on why the government had dropped its July 2022 start date since VAT charges had not been a barrier to deposit-return schemes in other European countries.

Slater said she was negotiating with retailers and producers “to figure out what the shortest practical time is possible to implement this scheme given the challenges around Brexit and around the pandemic. This is constant industry engagement.”

Liam McArthur, the Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP for Orkney, said the scheme posed significant challenges for small rural and island businesses. “Why is the government making such a mess of delivering DRS [deposit return scheme] in Scotland?” he asked.

“I’m absolutely aware of the criticality to industry of getting a firm delivery date,” Slater replied.

Maurice Golden, for the Scottish Conservatives, said contracts for the scheme were “shrouded in secrecy, with a multimillion tender process hidden from the public and this parliament,” as the government had contracted it out to a private company set up by industry.

The Scottish Retail Consortium, which represents major supermarkets, said it was no surprise that the scheme had been delayed as the 2022 start date was unrealistic.

“Retailers will raise a weary eyebrow that after this long-postponed announcement there will be a further delay until they receive clarity and visibility on the launch of the scheme,” said Ewan MacDonald-Russell, the consortium’s head of policy. “This process has been drawn out to a pretty farcical degree and needs to be urgently resolved. A new go-live date, no earlier than 2023, needs to be confirmed swiftly.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×