Plastic tide turns (cont): Tesco calls for deposits on bottles
TESCO last night became the first major supermarket to throw its weight behind efforts to tackle the scourge of throwaway plastic bottles.
Britain’s biggest grocer broke ranks with other leading retailers to say it would back a deposit and return scheme.
It follows Theresa May’s landmark pledge to launch a 25-year strategy to eliminate the blight of ‘avoidable’ plastic including bottles, cups and packaging. High street trade body the British Retail Consortium has lobbied ministers in an effort to block a deposit and return scheme (DRS). But its position is crumbling in the face of growing public and industry support for the idea.
The Daily Mail has previously revealed how Coca-Cola, the biggest producer of soft drink bottles, is prepared to support DRS after years of opposition. Now Tesco has joined Iceland and the Co-op in backing the measure. Marks & Spencer and Waitrose also appear to be coming round to the idea. Tesco said: ‘We do support developing a cost-effective deposit return system and are currently working with a number of partners to scope a project to explore how this can operate in practice and at scale. We view DRS as only one aspect of the holistic approach that is required to achieve the broader goals of reducing waste and increasing recycling in the UK.’
Tesco says it will also make all packaging fully recyclable or compostable by 2025.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove has described the introduction of a DRS for plastic bottles and drinks cans as a ‘great idea’. He has set up a working group to understand how one would work in England. Support has grown following alarming evidence from the BBC’s Blue Planet II series which featured the threat posed by plastic pollution to our oceans and sealife.
Mr Gove and Mrs May sidestepped questions about a national deposit and return scheme yesterday. Speaking at the launch of the Government’s environment strategy, the Prime Minister said: ‘On the issue of plastic bottle deposits we are looking at what actually is the best way – is it to recycle more or is it to use a deposit? We want to see the evidence base for what works.’ She added: ‘I’m old enough to remember the days of Corona bottles – it was a glass bottle, not plastic – and we took it back and you got your sixpence at the time. So this is not the first time that schemes such as this have been used here... but I think the important question is, let’s look at the evidence and see what would have the most impact.’
Government sources said a decision on whether to press ahead with a deposit return scheme was ‘in the balance’.
One source said the evidence suggested a national policy would be a ‘net positive’ for the environment, but said there could be more effective ways of tackling pollution caused by bottles.
The Daily Mail has highlighted the waste, litter and blight to the environment caused by plastic. Earlier campaigns led the Government to implement a 5p charge on carrier bags and a ban on the use of microbeads in personal care products. In other countries, such as Norway and Germany, supermarkets have reverse vending machines for used bottles and cans. These pay out vouchers that can be cashed in at tills.
Iceland said it is willing to install such machines in support of trials in Britain. Tesco is looking at doing the same.
Supermarkets and food giants have argued that forcing them to take greater responsibility for recycling packaging waste would cost them hundreds of millions of pounds. The BRC maintains that there should be improvements in waste collection and recycling rather than schemes such as DRS. The National Federation of Retail Newsagents, which speaks for 15,000 corner shops, is also part of a growing coalition supporting a scheme. Samantha Harding, of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said yesterday: ‘With retailers such as Tesco, Iceland and the Co-op in support, as well as newsagents across England, it’s obvious that there is now real potential for us to have a world-class deposit return system.’
Louise Edge, of Greenpeace, added: ‘It’s great news that Britain’s biggest retailer has come out firmly in support of deposit return schemes. [DRS] has been tried and tested across the developed world and they work, increasing the collection rate for plastic bottles up to 96 per cent.
‘The public support DRS, at least three of our supermarket chains now support DRS, even Coca-Cola support DRS, and the Scottish government have committed to introducing a scheme there.’