Chamber News
Scotland's Deposit Return Scheme
15 February 2023 • Sarah Medcraf
The Deposit Return Scheme is set to go ahead in August 2023, with producers having until the end of this month to register.
Producers, retailers, and hospitality may find the below slides useful and help answer any questions that you have on the process. There is a lot of information in here so please take time to read where you can.
Your Chamber network remains concerned over several points in the scheme and as of today, 15th February, have not had a response from Lorna Slater MSP on our concerns. However, as this still seems to be moving forward, we have a duty to update you on the information that we have to date and how this will affect businesses and the communities that we live in.
Scottish Chambers of Commerce has raised the key issues with the Scottish DRS as proposed:
• Additional cost burdens and complexity for retailers, hospitality and others during a cost of doing business crisis and a time of economic downturn.
• Lack of alignment with rest of UK DRS, which could create cross-border issues. UK DRS scheme will not come online until 2025 but Scottish scheme is currently scheduled to go live in August of this year.
• The amount of the handling fee meant to make the scheme “cost neutral” for retailers, nearly all of whom will be required to accept returns and repay deposits if they sell drinks that are consumed off their premises.
• Drinks manufacturers will from August be required to report the number of containers they place on the Scottish market and track their products with specialised labels.
You can find more details here: https://circularityscotland.com/deposit-return-scheme/
If you’d like to speak to us, please do reach out.