The Deposit Return Scheme is a Scotland Only scheme to charge a 20p deposit on every drinks container Plastic, Can & Glass bottles adding an upfront cost of £4.80 for a typical take home pack of 24 cans or bottles.

The Scheme will be paid for by the producers of these drinks by adding a cost of up to 4p to every single can or bottle. Most producers will simply add that to the cost we as consumers pay so there'll will be price increases in addition to the £4.80 extra cost.

Many small local producers can't afford these fees & will simply stop supplying the Scottish market or in some cases cease to exist. They are being asked to sign a 3 year legal agreement without having full detail of what that will legally bind them to & pay up front for the pleasure of doing so.

Additionally some industry experts are predicting that Scottish Consumers will see a drop off in the number of products on shop shelves so your own favourite tipple may disappear from Scottish Shops!  

The scheme is being administered by a company called Circularity Scotland which is described as a NOT FOR PROFIT organisation. It's important to note however that they have a large number of Directors & Executives who are reported to be on "eyewatering salaries" so they are clearly "profiting" from the scheme.

Some local councils have already elected to stop collecting some products for recycling, particularly glass containers. This means that rather than solve the problem of increasing recycling, more glass will now end up in land fill sites as there will be no means to recycle glass containers that are not drinks related eg jams, sauces etc.

Rather than putting our drinks containers in our normal recycling bins, usually outside, we will now need to keep these inside our homes until we visit a Return Point to redeem our 20p deposit, which in many cases will be a voucher for use in a large store. This is a threat to local businesses upon whom we all rely & local communities thrive.

There are many many more unanswered questions relating to this scheme which is scheduled to go live on 16th August 2023 so it's important to do your part, sign this petition, write to Lorna Slater the MSP leading this legislation change & do your bit to protect consumers, retailers, wholesalers, restaurants, bars, takeaways from this catastrophe for us all.

You can find out more from these links 

https://circularityscotland.com/​

https://www.sepa.org.uk/regulations/waste/deposit-return-scheme/faqs/