British Glass has responded to the UK Government’s consultation raising fears that the proposed Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will have a detrimental impact on closed loop glass recycling, increase carbon emissions and incentivise an increase in plastic consumption at the expense of glass.
In addition, a new report published by circular economy experts Oakdene Hollins has found that it will cost almost three times as much to recycle glass through a DRS compared to alternative kerbside recycling, favoured by the public.
In its consultation response, British Glass explained that the industry is committed to a 90 percent collected for recycling rate and for the first time announced a commitment to an 80 percent remelt target by 2030 which would see 80 percent of all glass recycled back into new bottles and jars as part of a closed loop.
A major concern for those working towards these targets is the fact that the government proposals do not include a recycling or remelt target as part of the deposit return scheme. Without these targets in place the glass sector is concerned that glass collected through a deposit return scheme will be collected for use in aggregates (such as construction) rather than for high value closed loop recycling into bottles and jars.
Adding to concerns is the government’s proposal that glass collected through the DRS via reverse vending machines will ‘compact glass into four, five or six pieces’. British Glass believe it is impossible to control the number of particles glass can be broken into and have set out to illustrate this through an exercise in breaking a variety of glass bottle formats. To be able to recycle glass as part of a closed loop, the material must be able to be colour sorted into green, amber, and clear colours, however, breaking glass as part of the deposit return scheme will drastically reduce the quality and quantity of glass available for bottle-to-bottle recycling. The recent Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) inquiry into DRS recognised the challenges associated with glass in the DRS including the risk to closed loop recycling of glass if the material is crushed within the scheme.
On material switching, British Glass have highlighted international evidence suggesting that including glass bottles in such a DRS incentivizes the use of plastic packaging, leading to an increase in the amount of plastics on the market – the very thing we want to avoid. At the same time, countries such as Wales, Norway and Sweden have shown it is possible to achieve a circa 90 percent glass collected for recycling rate through dedicated household and bottle bank collections underpinned by consistent collections that are well communicated to the public.
Notes
- The Oakdene Hollins report on the appraisal of the cost and benefits of three policy options for increasing the recycling for container glass in England can be found here.
- The British Glass response to the UK Government consultation on Introducing a Deposit Return Scheme in England, Wales and Northern Ireland can be found here.
- The British Glass response to the UK Government consultation on Extended Producer Responsibility can be found here.
- The recent Environment Audit Committee inquiry into Next Steps for DRS recognizes the challenges associated with glass recycling and said that “the inclusion of glass should be seriously considered”.