Plans to implement the UK’s Deposit Returns Scheme (DRS) have been given the go ahead after the planned regulations were passed through the House of Commons. Following a debate this week, the legislation was passed with a majority of 277.

Last November, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) laid out planned legislation for the DRS in parliament. Then this week, the regulations were passed 352 to 75, with a majority of 277.

Since it was first announced in the 2018 Resources and Waste Strategy, the DRS has faced some issues, including Wales announcement that it would be pulling out of the UK-wide scheme last year.  

More issues came when last week, the British Retail Consortium called for plans to implement the DRS to be delayed, calling the start date “unfeasible”. However other groups opposed their calls, including environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy who argued that major retailers have had nine years to prepare for its implementation. Keep Britain Tidy’s Chief Executive, Allison Ogden-Newton OBE added that other countries have implemented similar schemes much quicker:

The Irish scheme was rolled out in February 2024, just 26 months after regulations were published. There is no reason why our own timeline cannot be met, especially considering it features many of the same retailers and producers and allows for a much longer implementation period.”

A research survey carried out by Reloop in May 2024 found that 69% of the public support the implementation of a DRS. The survey also found that the DRS could create both environmental and economic benefits for the UK, including savings on the social cost of litter and a potential greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 0.46 million tonnes a year by 2032.

The scheme will come into effect in England and Northern Ireland in October 2027.