Environmental charities call on Rishi Sunak to urgently amend Deposit Return for England and Northern Ireland

Together with a number of environmental charities, we have backed a letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calling for an Internal Market Act exemption in order to deliver the Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland. The letter also urges England and Northern Ireland to include glass drinks bottles within scope for their deposit return schemes, thereby aligning with Scotland and Wales to create a UK-wide all-in approach.

We will continue to work with our partners, volunteers and relevant stakeholders to ensure that the #LitterEmergency is taken seriously, and that all these schemes play an active, measured and successful part in tackling litter and waste. This includes continuing to call for England and Northern Ireland to widen their Extended Producer Responsibility proposals for packaging to include ground litter, something which has also been confirmed for Scotland and Wales.

Catherine Gee, our Deputy CEO, said:

“We look forward to supporting the roll out of the DRS in Scotland next year with both data monitoring and public engagement and will work with our partners in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to call for a consistent all-in system across the UK.”

You can read the letter in full.