Council seeks to exempt high schools from bottle scheme
Argyll and Bute Council wants to exempt its secondary schools from the Scottish Government’s recycling scheme, fearing it may make free school meals not free, increase bullying, and be a target for organised crime.
The Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will require shoppers to pay 20p extra when buying a drink in a single-use container of PET plastic, steel and aluminium, or glass, between 50ml and three litres. The fee is refunded when they return the empty, intact containers for recycling at a collection point, such as council-run school canteens.
The scheme was due to go live on Wednesday August 16, but in April was postponed until March 2024. On Thursday May 11, councillors on the policy and resources committee considered the DRS’s implications.
“It is a significant concern for secondary schools, where bottled water, flavoured drinks and canned drinks are sold to paying pupils, or are available for young people entitled to a free school meal to purchase using their meal allowance,” the report said.
“The DRS administrator, Circularity Scotland, has yet to provide firm advice and answers to a number of concerns that have been raised.
“The financial risk for the scheme lies with the producer and retailer. When bottles and cans are returned, these have to be processed and stored securely, to ensure that they can be returned centrally, and only then will the service be reimbursed.
“This will require potentially significant storage space in secondary school buildings where space is already at a premium.
“The increased charge rate per product will be higher than 20p to cover costs. One producer has indicated the cost is likely to be around 28p per unit.
“As bottles and cans cannot be crushed or dented, and labels must be intact, there will be issues with pupils trying to obtain a deposit and refused.
“Empty bottles could become a form of ‘currency’ introducing a potential means of bullying or extracting funds from individual pupils.
“There could be security risks, should there be storage in school playgrounds or outbuildings, and Police Scotland have raised concerns about whether the scheme could be targeted by organised crime.”
The council could buy a reverse vending machine for every school, but then it must monitor and fix them, and bag, tag and store empties for uplift. But this may not be viable, as each school would not reach the cost effective volume of 250 bottles per day.
Another option is not selling any plastic bottles and cans, “leaving a very limited choice of tetra pack drinks and cartons. Water is available from dispensers in all schools.”
However, Circularity Scotland discourages a switch to alternative materials, “for example tetra pak contains aluminium which has a higher carbon footprint”. Trials switching pupils to refillable water bottles were not successful. Stopping selling bottles and cans also loses income, worth £62,600 between August and December 2022.
Pupils receiving a free meal get £2.40 to buy food and drinks at lunchtime, “to enable equity, dignity and choice”. They are not exempt from paying the 20p deposit, reducing how much food they can buy.
“Not all will return their bottle or can, meaning that the financial burden is likely to reoccur, for some as often as every day.”
Alternatives are asking them to pay 20p, but then their meal is no longer free, or limiting the £2.40 to food only, “making them more easily identifiable”, or the council increasing the allowance to £2.60, costing it £25,000 per year.
“Officers are exploring whether there could be a way of being exempt from the scheme both for secondary schools and commercial cafes.”
Councillors agreed officers keep highlighting “potential negative impacts”, and seeking “greater clarity and response on operational matters”.