Now business demands: End this dumped bottle blight
MORE than a dozen businesses have joined the call for a bottle deposit scheme to be introduced by the Scottish Government.
Fifteen firms from across the country last night sent a joint letter to Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham, calling for action to tackle the growing litter problems on Scotland’s streets, parks, beaches and countryside.
The companies, which have united to back the Scottish Daily Mail’s Banish The Bottles campaign, said a deposit return scheme could improve the environment and boost business.
Their letter points out that firms may no longer have to pay for trade waste to be lifted if the scheme is introduced – and could benefit from receiving a handling fee for collecting empty containers.
It also says businesses could benefit from increased footfall as a result of customers bringing back their empties – which would boost trade.
Companies that have signed the letter include wholesaler Dunns Food and Drink, the Boozy Cow bar, Good Spirits company, The Project Cafe, Barney’s Beer and Whitmuir Farm.
The letter states: ‘We urge you to take the next steps towards the introduction of a deposit return system our climate and our planet further can only be a good thing.’
The Boozy Cow, which has bars in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Stirling, said others should support the introduction of a bottle deposit scheme as it will benefit the economy and the environment alike.
A spokesman said: ‘A deposit return system in Scotland would likely mean uplifts are provided for free by those who run the system – as is the case in countries who already have deposit return.
‘This would save Boozy Cow a lot of money and might even bring in a small amount of extra cash instead. Deposit return works for businesses like ours in other countries. It’s time for deposit return here.’
Glasgow-based brewery Jay Brew experienced the benefits of the system while working in Germany.
In 2014, it collaborated with Strathclyde University on a project to reuse the bottles it filled and was ‘frustrated that the infrastructure to do so in Scotland does not yet exist’. The brewer said it would offer any help it could to make a return scheme a reality.
Edinburgh grocer Tattie Shaws said small Scottish business wants ‘to be part of a culture where nothing is wasted and where empties are reused or recycled’. However, it cautioned that a return system needed to take into account shops that are too small to take part.