A Coca-Cola bottler has urged the UK government to introduce legislation for a deposit return scheme (DRS) before the general election.
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners – the sole licensed bottler for the drink giant’s products in Europe – vice-president Julian Hunt said the UK risks becoming the “dirty man of Europe” if there continues to be less incentive for Brits to recycle drinks containers, The Times reported.
Speaking at Retail Week Live last week, Hunt said: “It’s really time that the four governments come together and start to sort this out, irrespective of where we are in the electoral process.”
Under the scheme, a charge will be applied to drinks containers, which consumers would be able to claim back when they return the bottles and cans in a bid to reduce plastic and litter pollution.
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Last month, The Grocer revealed that a British deposit return scheme could be pushed back until at least 2028 due to challenges of the timeframe needed for retailers to install the infrastructure and in forming an administrator.
Last year, supermarket bosses expressed concerns that the scheme will cost retailers approximately £1.8bn – a figure ten times the amount than officials previously reported.
The British Retail Consortium backed a delay to the plans, arguing that the government should “rethink” the DRS to “prevent the introduction of an unnecessarily complex and costly scheme”.
However, the Republic of Ireland became the 43rd country to launch a DRS on 1 February, and more than six million drinks containers have been collected since.
Hunt said: “It’s been a pretty darn successful launch built on pragmatism and collaboration. However, we still have a lack of clarity across Great Britain.
“We’ve still got concerns that we could end up with three different schemes. That is not just bad for business and bad for consumers but bad for the environment.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “We are pushing ahead with our programme of reforms to reduce waste and improve our use of resources and remain committed to our goal of eliminating avoidable waste by 2050.
“It’s essential that we work closely with industry to make sure our reforms will be a success and we will continue to engage with businesses closely as we proceed with introducing the deposit return scheme.”
