Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of (a) deposit return schemes and (b) extended producer responsibility on on glass recycling rates.

In 2019, we consulted on Introducing a Deposit Return Scheme in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (DRS), and on Reforming the UK Packaging Producer Responsibility System (EPR). In support of these consultations, impact assessments were also published. These impact assessments include analysis of the effect of a DRS and EPR for packaging on the glass packaging recycling rates over the appraisal period. This includes both the effect of the schemes individually, and the combined effect of the schemes.

The analysis indicates that, the combined impact of a DRS and EPR for packaging would increase the UK glass packaging recycling rates to 82% by 2032, compared to 72% under a scenario without these schemes.

Furthermore, the analysis shows that all of this would be from the effect of introducing a DRS. It has been estimated in WRAPs Glass Packaging Flow Data Report that around 80% of glass packaging placed on the market in the UK is glass beverage bottles. https://www.wrap.org.uk/content/glass-flow-2025-–-glass-packaging-flow-data-report Any packaging that is obligated under a DRS will not be obligated under EPR for packaging. This means that, EPR for packaging would only be applicable to around 20% of glass packaging placed on the market, and therefore will have little impact on glass packaging recycling rates.

The assumptions and details behind these figures, and further analysis of the impacts of these schemes, can be found in the impact assessment documents:

• DRS IA https://consult.defra.gov.uk/environment/introducing-a-deposit-return-scheme/supporting_documents/depositreturnconsultia.pdf
• EPR IA https://consult.defra.gov.uk/environmental-quality/consultation-on-reforming-the-uk-packaging-produce/supporting_documents/packagingeprconsultimpactassessment.pdf.

We are currently working to improve this analysis, which will be subject to a second consultation in due course.