Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact on carton recycling rates of including carton packages in the Government's proposed Deposit Return Scheme.
We have now consulted twice on introducing a DRS in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and are analysing the responses to the second consultation, including those on scope and materials.
In developing proposals, the government have considered the inclusion of cartons in the scheme. However, the recent consultation proposed that cartons would not be captured by DRS and instead could be collected through kerbside collections. Cartons could be included in the core list of materials to be collected in the dry recyclable waste streams, and producers could pay for disposal of the packaging through the reformed packaging producer responsibility regime.
Final details of the scope of the DRS will be presented in a government response which will be published in due course. An impact assessment to support final proposals for the introduction of the scheme will also be published alongside the government response.