Polytag CEO: Optimizing recycling rates with digitalized deposit return schemes

29 Feb 2024 --- We speak with Alice Rackley, CEO of UK company Polytag, a recycling technology company and connected packaging solutions provider, about how digital deposit return schemes (DDRS) are integral to a circular packaging economy.

Under Rackley’s leadership, Polytag has partnered with major brands and retailers, including Ocado Retail, Co-op and Aldi, to “transform packaging from a cost center to a value driver and make step-change progress toward more recycling.” 

We discuss how the company’s technologies will be a part of a wider connected packaging future that aids recycling rates, waste avoidance and accurate business reporting. 

What does Polytag offer compared to other tag and trace companies?
Rackley: Polytag helps brands that deal in single-use plastic to discover unprecedented, barcode-level data into packaging lifecycles. As of last year, major retailers Ocado, Co-op and Aldi now, for the very first time, know where, when and how much of their single-use plastic is disposed of in at-home recycling bins or  detected in recycling centers. 

QR tracing for F&B packaging is boosting recycling rates.Apart from playing their part in fixing the recycling problem, brands reap the benefits of how this never-before-seen data constructively informs C-suite-level sustainability strategies and decisions, sets truthful, objective benchmarks and enables effective reporting against legislative targets.

What is the importance of DDRS, and what impact could it have on the packaging industry?
Rackley: The deposit return scheme (DRS) is a significant piece of legislation designed to increase the recycling rates of single-use packaging, including plastic, cans and glass. It is a scheme that has been highly debated over recent years for a cohort of reasons, with one being that the cost to deliver and run the scheme will ultimately be passed onto the consumer and retailers, thus reducing its appeal. 

More specifically, it is the reverse vending machines that enable the scheme, which means retailers and brands will forever carry the financial and logistical burdens of storing and managing them, thus giving the circular economy a cost.

With the climate change agenda driving today’s society and economy, packaging should be a value driver, not a cost center, and it needn’t stand in the way of achieving a circular economy. Brands should be leveraging the power of packaging and the positive impact it can have on organizations’ bottom lines, not least through increasing spend and communicating CSR commitments.

Therefore, the recycling industry has taken the liberty of driving the DDRS, a way of managing and collecting single-use plastic with the help, convenience and cost-savings from 21st-century mobile and app-based technologies. The personalized QR codes eliminate the need for high-cost, physical infrastructure, offering low-cost, convenient ways for brands to track, trace and monitor their packaging — all the while, consumers save time and money being able to do all of the above with just their smartphones. 

All drink manufacturers and brands need to do now is invest in unique, every-time QR codes on their labels, which are ready to be scanned by consumers from the comfort of their homes, and claim the rewards. 

What are possible  environmental sustainability impacts of DDRS?
Rackley:  All DRS can have immense environmental advantages in handling single-use packaging — we saw it as early as the 1970’s when governments across the globe adopted deposit schemes with cans, and more recently with progressive countries such as Spain, Belgium and Serbia, which have publicly acknowledged the benefits of such schemes.Polytag has already partnered with Ocado for a DDRS pilot.

The difference is that now we live in an ever-busy, fast-paced, connected society that relies on technology, and a DDRS offers the speed, convenience, accessibility and recycling results that a DRS doesn’t. 

Last year, Polytag’s DDRS pilot with Ocado Retail saw significantly increased recycling rates, with 87% of those who scanned Ocado’s milk bottles recycled them and obtained rewards — in total, over 20,000 20p rewards were claimed in just 56 days, proving a digital approach to recycling is not just welcomed but embraced by consumers.

What are the main challenges Polytag now faces, and how will you tackle them?
Rackley:  Our biggest and only challenge is waiting. We are waiting for the government to show it is open to innovation, to finalize legislation, and to give consumers the choice of using a scheme that is fit for purpose for the 21st century. But until then, we are privileged to be working with a number of leading brands across the UK and Europe on delivering reward schemes to drive increased basket spend, drive frequency of shop, maximize brand loyalty, leverage branding and marketing opportunities, and above all, help to increase recycling rates.

In anticipation of the government’s green light, we are working on a roadmap of material recovery facilities (MRFs) that will be joining our mission to collect live packaging recycling insights for brands across the nation. Our Invisible UV Tag detection solution provides granular barcode-level insights into exactly when and where packaging gets recycled. Data is imperative for brands facing EPR legislation because what gets measured gets managed. So, it’s key we install readers at MRFs, which handle the largest proportion of UK kerbside recycling materials.

We are at a point now where brands simply can’t afford to continue guessing what or where their packaging is — consumers are becoming increasingly aware of brands’ credentials and commitments to the environment and if they aren’t doing their bit, they will vote with their feet.

What should UK and EU policymakers do to aid this type of technology?
Rackley: It is simple — just be open to innovation. The UK possesses some of the greatest technology and innovation heritages in history, but the current government’s flip-flopping has done this status a disservice. Despite the Net Zero Government Initiatives in 2008 and 2019, our recycling rates have stagnated at 45% for the last 12 years. It’s very clear that improvements in this won’t come from leaflet drops, TV campaigns and other advertising efforts. 

What is required is genuine innovation that incentivizes people to recycle and incentivizes brands to take the lead.

By Louis Gore-Langton