Phillip Fenton, chief packaging and recycling consultant for the trade association British Glass, explained why his organization believes that the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) is not the right solution for glass.

Opinion: As the government is about to respond to DRS consultations in the UK, we must seize this opportunity to reform the UK’s recycling and properly understand the details behind these upcoming regulations.

At British Glass, we are proud of working with our members to increase the glass recycling rate, which is supported by a dedicated local authority's household recycling program. In fact, we have set an industry goal to achieve a 90% glass recycling rate by 2030.

We believe that higher glass recycling rates can be achieved through consistent household collection, promotional activities, and expanded producer responsibility (EPR). At the same time, we recognize that the government's DRS proposal can play a role in collecting and recycling certain materials. However, we firmly believe that this is not the correct solution for glass. Therefore, before its design is finalized, we must fully understand the meaning of such programs.

We are deeply concerned that the inclusion of glass in the DRS may increase the amount of single-use plastic in circulation-this is what international evidence shows. For example, when the plan was launched in Germany, plastic consumption increased by 60%. In Croatia, since the introduction of DRS, plastics have become the market leader in beverage bottles. In Finland, when PET plastic bottles were introduced into DRS in 2008, the number of disposable PET increased from about 50 million in 2007 to 375 million in 2017.

There are several reasons for this shift to plastic. A fixed deposit rate means that the upfront costs of larger PET packaging formats are cheaper, for example, paying 20 pence for a 2-liter plastic bottle and £1.20 for six 330-ml glass bottles. The introduction of such deposits can encourage consumers to scale up.

Another reason is that plastics can be crushed within the DRS to reduce the space and costs for manufacturers who pay for the system, making plastics a more attractive packaging solution for manufacturers. Unlike cans and plastic bottles, glass must be color sorted before it can be recycled, which means that if the glass is crushed below a certain size, it can no longer be color sorted and used to remelt into a new bottle. Smashing glass in this way not only poses the risk of bottle-to-bottle recycling, but also actually increases the emissions of the glass industry, because the use of recycled glass to make new glass can reduce energy use. Each ton of glass remelted can be compared with use. Save 580 kg of raw materials for carbon dioxide emissions. The glass industry wants to use more recycled glass instead of more raw materials.

Any future glass recycling program must include remelting targets to ensure that the glass is collected and recycled into new bottles and jars. Without this goal, we will lose this glass in the circular economy, thereby weakening any economic justification for DRS, reducing bottle-to-bottle recycling rates, and pushing up our emissions.

There are additional environmental issues related to vehicle emissions. Household collections in glass food packaging still need to be kept. Splitting the glass into two recycling streams not only makes glass recycling more complicated and inconsistent, but also requires two sets of vehicles to collect waste for recycling.

Splitting glass into two recycling streams makes glass recycling more complicated and inconsistent

More importantly, glass is heavier. The government's hypothesis is that the glass will be shipped back to the store for people to collect the deposit. But it depends on the vehicle-not everyone owns it. This is also when the government wants to see people reduce vehicle use to improve air quality and exercise more. Plastics and cans are easily crushed and light to transport, but having to take glass bottles to ride a bicycle or walk is more troublesome, especially for some social groups such as the elderly, and there is a risk of breaking during transportation , May produce garbage or not return it completely-all reduce glass recycling.

We have established a system that lays the foundation for 90% of glass recycling-and it's on our doorstep. EPR will build on the success of our current household and bottle warehouse recycling program, and strengthen communication and information about recycling, all based on consistent recycling by local authorities.

This is what happened in Norway and Sweden. DRS for plastics and EPR for glass run together; the recycling rates in Norway and Sweden are 89.4% and 92.8%, respectively. We have done this in Wales, where the glass capture rate is as high as 87.3%, demonstrating what better communication and consistent collection can achieve.

We want to see more glass bottles being recycled-that's why we don't want to see glass bottles in DRS. Including glass will run counter to the government's own environmental and sustainable development goals.

We all know that we need to recycle more glass. But the glass must be recycled properly.

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