UK town pioneers digital DRS for consumer recycling and packaging circularity boosts
20 July 2023 --- A UK town will roll out a 12-week digital deposit return scheme (DDRS) designed to test how the technology could encourage recycling. As the “world-first” full-town DDRS trial, the Welsh town of Brecon has dubbed the project Scan Recycle Reward.
Wales reportedly boasts relatively high recycling rates, and a full DRS is expected to be implemented in 2025. The country is now trialing DDRS to boost on-the-go recycling to decrease landfill waste.
“DDRS promises to deliver higher return rates and be more impactful in changing consumer habits than a conventional DRS. It is enabled through more return points at more convenient locations and smartphone technology,” Duncan Midwood, co-founder of the DDRS Alliance, tells Packaging Insights.
“[The trial] offers a lower financial and carbon cost. It also provides a more accessible solution for all countries and communities while ensuring they remain compatible worldwide. This enables higher levels of packaging to be returned for recycling or reuse and establishes global standardization.”
Shift toward DDRS
The scheme will begin next month, with welcome packs for Brecon residents arriving in the post starting on July 13. The welcome pack will contain an introductory letter, an information leaflet and a set of stickers to apply to household recycling containers.
Speaking on how DDRS relates to the packaging industry, Midwood says: “Most of the focus is on looking at alternative materials and driving more use of recycled material in their packaging products. But the thinking is too narrow – driving increased collection methods is the enabler to increased recycled usage. And reuse is the longer term goal.”
“As governments, brands, producers, retailers and the waste industry see how DDRS benefits them as well as the consumer and environment, they will start to demand serialized packaging to enable DDRS.”
Brecon, Wales, becomes the “first” town to implement a DDRS.Midwood continues by highlighting that the packaging industry will be able to provide added value to their customers and end users by enabling DDRS. “The benefits will extend beyond drink containers and DRS. DDRS becomes a catalyst for this burgeoning revolution,” he says.
The trial will analyze citizens’ preferred return options for recycling drinks containers and aid in learning more about recycling behavior. “This will be the first time anywhere in the world that a whole town will use this new technology, and the findings will be analyzed and shared with the rest of the UK, putting Brecon at the forefront of recycling innovation,” adds Councillor Jackie Charlton.
Boosting recycling rates
Dissimilar from a typical DRS, Scan Recycle Reward has no deposit charged by retailers. Trial participants can claim 10 p (US$0.12) by scanning uniquely labeled drink containers with their mobile phones before recycling at home, through their everyday curbside recycling collection, or using various “on-the-go” return points in town.
“For every container scanned and recycled correctly, participants will have the choice to ‘cash in’ their reward or donate it to the Brecon Food Bank and the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, our two nominated local charities,” explains Charlton.
Wales has some of the highest recycling rates per capita, with the regional authority recording a 65.2% in 2022. This ranks the nation third in the world, behind Germany and Taiwan, according to Eunomia research.
In 2024-25, the statutory target will be raised to 70%, which has already been met by four Welsh local authorities: Conwy, Vale of Glamorgan, Bridgend and Pembrokeshire.
“In committing to introducing a DRS for drink containers, our aim is not only to drive Wales’s recycling rate higher as a key action to tackle the climate and nature emergency but also to sign
DDRS Alliance’s co-founder views DRS as an end goal solution for the packaging industry.ificantly improve on-the-go recycling and tackle the littering of bottles and cans in our communities,” says Minister for Climate Change, Julie James.
“This trial is important in understanding and testing how best to operate a digital scheme in an existing community and will gather information on the consumer response and how innovative technology can be used in operating a DRS.”
DRS in the UK
The labeled beverages will be available to buy from many shops in Brecon. The DDRS Alliance is leading the scheme in partnership with Welsh Government, WRAP Cymru, Powys County Council and local retailers.
More information on the Scan Recycle Reward trial, including instructions on how to take part, a list of participating retailers and details of all the “on-the-go” recycling points, are available online.
Last month, Wales vowed to proceed with its plans for a DRS by 2025, despite the UK government’s refusal to exclude glass from Scotland’s DRS plans. Welsh climate change minister Julie James pledged to take the UK government “to task” on the issue.
Meanwhile, Scotland’s DRS was postponed three times due to industry fears that an exception in one nation would lead to unfair pricing and trade barriers throughout the country. The DRS is currently planned to be implemented in October 2025.
This week, UK-based recycling technology company Polytag and Sweden-based recycling app Bower teamed up with the online supermarket Ocado Retail to offer a financial reward to consumers for recycling milk bottles through a QR code initiative that is compatible with DDRS.
By Sabine Waldeck
