Julian supports deposit return scheme to keep York tidy
February 3, 2024
Julian attended a parliamentary drop-in session to discuss hosted by “Reloop” and “Keep Britain Tidy” on delivering a successful deposit return scheme (DRS).
Keep Britain Tidy’s National Litter Survey has demonstrated that, by volume, drinks containers continue to make up 75% of the litter found in our communities. The most robust evidence for DRSs’ positive impact on reduction of this litter comes from studies that have compared litter rates in places with DRS versus those without. A report by Keep South Australia Beautiful found that in 2018-2019, drinks container litter comprised only 2.9% of litter items in South Australia—which has had a DRS in place since 1977—compared with 14.2% in Western Australia—which at that time did not have a DRS.
It is also a popular initiative. Last year, Keep Britain Tidy commissioned YouGov to gauge public opinion on deposit return schemes. The polling revealed that: three-quarters of people (76%) believe that glass should be included in DRS, the highest percentage, ahead of plastic (75%) and aluminium (69%); awareness of DRS is low – just 30% had heard of DRS and answered that they knew what it was, however when DRS was explained, 66% supported it.
Julian has long been an advocate of a full and comprehensive scheme. Back in 2018, Julian called for such a scheme when the 25 Year Environment Plan was unveiled. He was disappointed that Ministers have only carried out a call for evidence on a ‘return and reward’ scheme. A deposit return scheme is vital to comprehensively reduce plastic pollution, and he has spent the last 6 years pressing the government to proceed with this as soon as possible.
After the event, Julian was quoted as saying:
“This is a campaign I’ve been passionate about for a long time, as we transition to Net Zero, returning bottles is an easy win to help the environment. We used to do it for decades and our European allies continue to. I hope see the Government bring forward legislation to make this happen.”
