Gove urged not to limit bottle deposit scheme to small containers

Michael Gove has been urged not to water down plans to give people money back for recycling plastic bottles and cans, after consulting on whether to target small drink containers only.

The environment secretary will confirm on Monday that he is pressing ahead with the new “deposit return” scheme for cans and bottles made of plastic and glass, as well as a tax on some plastic packaging.

However, the consultation revealed the scheme may only target drinks of less than 750ml, intended to be consumed on the go.

This would include single soft drink cans and small mineral water bottles that people tend to buy while out of the home, but not larger bulky containers purchased as part of a bigger supermarket shop.

The other option – preferred by environmental groups – would be to include all plastic and glass bottles as well as cans, irrespective of their size, which has hugely increased recycling in some European countries.

Under such schemes, people pay an upfront deposit when they buy a drink, ranging from 8p in Sweden to 22p in Germany, which is redeemed on return of the empty drink container. Possible variants of a deposit return scheme include cash rewards for returning drinks containers without an upfront deposit.

Separately, the environment secretary wants to bring in a tax on the production and import of plastic packaging with less than 30% recycled content, although it is not clear whether the revenue from the levy will go to good causes. In contrast, retailers are expected to send revenues from the plastic bag levy to charity.

Gove said the proposals would help Britain become less of a “throwaway” society.

“Through our plans, we will introduce a world-leading tax to boost recycled content in plastic packaging, make producers foot the bill for handling their packaging waste and end the confusion over household recycling,” he said.

“We are committed to cementing our place as a world leader in resource efficiency, so we can be the first generation to leave our environment in a better state than we inherited it.”

Under the plans, ministers also want to make it clearer what is and is not recyclable, at a time when government figures suggest the UK is not on track to meet EU targets to recycle half of household rubbish by 2020. Figures for 2017 show 45.7% of household waste in the UK was recycled.

Julian Kirby, the lead plastics campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said a deposit return scheme is long overdue and “must cover all containers, not just small ones”.

“These proposals are welcome steps forward, but bigger strides are needed if we are truly going to deal with the consequences of our throwaway society,” he added.

Samantha Harding, the litter programme director at the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said it was important all bottles and cans were included in the deposit return scheme.

“By introducing a deposit system that accepts and collects every single can and bottle, Michael Gove has a golden opportunity to end growing scepticism around current recycling methods, by boosting recycling rates of drinks cans and bottles to near perfection,” she said.

“This would make such a difference to the health of our environment and relieve struggling local councils of the huge financial burden of waste management, by making those who produce these vast amounts of packaging rightfully liable for the costs of dealing with it.”

Sam Chetan-Welsh, a Greenpeace UK political adviser, said: “A ‘catch-all’ deposit return scheme could be a turning point in Britain’s efforts to curb plastic pollution, but it’s crucial that ministers get it right.

“A half-baked scheme limited to smaller bottles will simply confuse customers and fail to capture millions of larger plastic containers, many of which could still end up buried in landfill, burnt in incinerators or polluting our oceans.”