SNP pledges support for plastic bottle deposit and return plan

A RADICAL scheme to help tackle the scourge of bottles and cans littering Scotland’s streets and beaches has secured the backing of the SNP.

The party’s local election manifesto said a well-designed deposit return scheme (DRS) ‘has the potential to reduce the amount of bottles and other packaging discarded on our streets and roadsides’.

It is a major boost for the Scottish Daily Mail’s Banish The Bottles campaign, which backs up to 10p being added to the price of a plastic or glass bottle, to be refunded if the empty container is returned to a collection point.

A cross-party sub-group of MSPs is expected to support a pilot DRS when it publishes a report on the issue in June.

It will then be up to ministers to decide whether to press ahead. The manifesto states: ‘SNP councils will ensure we can all take pride in our villages, towns, cities and countryside by working to reduce litter, improve recycling rates and reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill. We will work with the Scottish Government during its appraisal of a deposit return scheme.’

SNP councillor David Aitchison, chairman of Aberdeenshire’s infrastructure services committee, said: ‘We look forward to SNP councils working with the Scottish Government to make sure any proposal works in practice.’

John Mayhew, director of the Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland, which is running the Have You Got The Bottle? campaign, said: ‘Figures from the Scottish Government suggest costs from litter and street bins could fall by a substantial £13million across Scotland.’

It is estimated that 130,000 containers are dumped in Scotland every day.

At Holyrood this week, Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said: ‘We are carefully considering deposit return. We need to be careful to avoid inadvertently creating difficulties for much smaller businesses.’