NOT SO GREEN NOW!

Scottish Greens’ minister criticised by Greenpeace over delay to bottle return scheme...as she tries to blame Westminster for fiasco

GREEN minister Lorna Slater was left humiliated yesterday after announcing an ‘embarrassing’ delay to a flagship policy to tackle plastic pollution.

Miss Slater said she was unable to say when a deposit return scheme (DRS) for bottles and cans, due to come into force next July after previous delays, would be introduced.

It led to a furious response from environmental campaigners, who warned the entire scheme could be thrown into doubt by the latest delay.

Prior to the ‘co-operation agreement’ between the SNP and the Greens, Miss Slater publicly criticised the Scottish Government for repeatedly delaying the scheme, saying in May it ‘needs doing’.

But she announced the latest delay in a statement to MSPs in her capacity as circular economy minister yesterday.

Nina Schrank, senior plastics campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: ‘This shambolic delay to the long-awaited deposit return scheme is embarrassing for a government which loves to shout about its green credentials. They haven’t even given a clear timeline for any delay, which might even put the future of this vital scheme into doubt.

‘Every year of delay means millions more bottles being dumped or burned. The deposit return scheme was a flagship environmental policy for the Scottish Government, and they’ve kicked the can down the road yet again.’

SNP ministers announced the DRS after the Banish the Bottles campaign launched by the Daily Mail in 2017.

It would see a 20p deposit being added to the price of all drinks containers, to be refunded when the containers are returned to retailers.

It was supposed to become operational before the Holyrood election but was delayed until July next year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Miss Slater told MSPs she wanted to bring in the scheme ‘as quickly as practically possible’ but could not commit to July 2022.

She said: ‘The pandemic and Brexit had a major impact on businesses, particularly retailers and those involved in their supply chains.

‘The businesses who will be most instrumental in making the DRS operate, including hospitality businesses, convenience stores and small brewers, were and still are badly affected.’ She also said there has been a ‘lack of clarity’ from the UK Government on the VAT treatment of deposits, which she said adds costs, time delay and ‘risk’ to the project. Miss Slater said she was working with the non-profit private company set up to run the scheme to ‘agree a final timescale and clear milestones for delivery’.

Tory Maurice Golden said: ‘The only thing we see the SNP-Green Government recycling are their excuses. The SNP-Green Government have a dismal environmental record, after missing targets three years on the trot.’

Scottish Labour environment spokesman Mercedes villalba said: ‘A combination of caving to lobbyists and a lack of political will has caused this delay.’

Ewan MacDonald-Russell of the Scottish Retail Consortium said: ‘This process has been drawn out to a pretty farcical degree and needs urgently resolved.’