What makes a deposit return scheme successful?

A large proportion of our waste is comprised of single-use drinks containers and far too many of them end up littering our high streets, beaches and countryside. Plastic drinks containers ultimately break up into tiny pieces (microplastics) which go on to cause harm in the natural environment. (Glass containers cause different problems when they break and litter the streets with bits of glass that can cut animal’s feet and cause infections).

To reduce the problem of this unsightly and damaging litter, the UK is to introduce a deposit return scheme (DRS) [1], starting in October 2027. This means you will pay slightly more for your drink but get some back when you return the container to a collection point.

If the scheme is successful this will increase the recycling rate for plastic and other bottles, reducing the need for more virgin material and the GHG emissions from the fossil fuel plastic is made from. You will still be able to leave your plastics for collection by your local waste collection services as now but you will not get the deposit back that way. The DRS route is better for recycling because the bottles will be sorted rather than mixed in with other rubbish as now. The scheme will be managed by a not-for-profit Deposit Management Organisation (DMO) .

There are already successful schemes in Germany [2] and Sweden that we can learn from. These schemes achieved returns rate of 98% [2] and 87.6% [3] respectively in 2024.

The key factors for high collection rate are:

• Significant deposit value to incentivise consumers
• In Germany, the deposits for multi-use containers range from 0.08 - 0.25 euro (7p-22p). For single-use containers the deposit is 0.25 euro (set by the government) [2]
• In some places the deposit varies with the size of the container. For example in Sweden you get 1 or 2 SEK (8p or 16p) for aluminium cans depending on the size, or 2-3 SEK (16p – 25p) for PET bottles [3]
•  Many nearby collection points
•  Reducing the effort required to take containers back
• To increase the density of collection points, retailers may be obliged to take collections, or take part in a shared collection service such as Re-turn
• In California there is no obligation on retailers to take back containers and the recycling rate is much lower – only 60%
• Most Items included in the scheme
• Typically glass and aluminium containers are included and often recyclable plastic such as PET. 
• PET plastic is usually shredded and reformed into pellets to make new bottles
•  The UK scheme will not include glass because of safety issues with broken glass. However glass is included in the Extended Producer Responsibility scheme [1].
• To reduce costs for the retailer
• Shared services
• Revino supports wine producers in Oregon in re-using wine bottles. They provide sorting and washing services
• Collections can be automated, for example by reversed vending machines [4]

In summary: deposit return schemes can be very successful in raising recycling rates for containers and hence reducing GHG emissions. However they can be onerous to use for both consumers and retailers. To achieve high levels of participation it needs to be convenient for consumers to take the containers to collection points and/or fines for con-compliance by the retailer. Shared services and/or automation can reduce costs.

[1] Introducing the deposit return scheme for drinks containers Jan 2025 (blog.gov, Jan 2025) 

 

[2] A look at Germany’s bottle deposit scheme (dw.com, Nov 2021) 

[3] New data says Swedish DRS recycled 2.8 billion beverage containers in 2024 (Packaging Europe) March 2025

[4] Reverse vending machines: The benefits of automation for retailers in deposit return schemes

 

How to recycle solar panels: the cheap and cheerful approach

A recent journal paper suggests a new approach to recycling solar panels [1]. This is very much a cheap and cheerful approach (my words) compared to the gold standard ‘full recovery end of life’ approach. A comparison of the two methods is illuminating. The main author of the paper, Pablo Dias, has since set up a company called Solar Cycle to commercialise his process. It is great to hear of technology progressing from research in a university into the real world. Dias is from the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of New South Wales, (Sidney, Australia) and some of the contributors to the paper were from other universities in Brazil but Solar Cycle has been set up in Texas, USA. 

The cheap and cheerful approach:

• Involves only mechanical process and electrostatic separation; no high temperatures and no acids
• Produces less pure products – more like metal ‘ore’ than refined metals 
• Is less capital intensive
• Can be economic at small scales

Hoarding electrical stuff harms the environment.

Do you have a drawer full of old mobile phones and other electrical/electronic stuff? If so, why haven’t you recycled them? Hoarding damages the environment.

I was pleasantly surprised that Apple actually paid me £94 for my old Mac Mini when I bought a new one a few months ago. However even without a financial incentive it is good to recycle. It helps the circular economy - otherwise there is nothing for it to work on.

Why I am pulling 100% degradable plastic bags from my compost bin

My organic veg supplier has recently started using plastic bags with this logo on. It says they are '100% degradable'. Perhaps I was naive in assuming that meant it was OK to put the bags in the compost bin. It turns out that they are 'oxo-degradable', a technology which is highly controversial.  They are currently banned in France and Spain [1]. 150 organisations including the World Wildlife Fund, Unilever and British Plastics Federation Recycling Group have signed a statement calling for them to be banned completely [2]. Now the European Commission has called for all member countries to take measures against them [3].

Is waste incineration sensible, a health disaster or a white elephant?

Amey have submitted a planning application for an Energy from Waste plant at their waste handling facility in Waterbeach [1]. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? There are potential concerns about air pollution, carbon emissions and disincentive to reycle. But it will divert stuff from landfill and probably reduce GHG emissions overall.

The facility will process residual waste – the stuff that has come through the Mechanical Biological Treatment and not been picked out as valuable, and the stuff that was rejected from the dry recycling plant, plus construction and demolition waste. This waste would normally go to landfill.

The waste will be burnt in a furnace at 850°C to produce electricity and also heat; they hope to supply district heating for new developments in the area.

Amey's main EfW inputs and outputs [1, section 4]

A bottle deposit scheme is tinkering round the edges.

Much of the news reporting on the parliament report ‘Turning back the plastic tide’ has been about implementing a bottle deposit scheme for plastic bottles. However this is not the most important of the recommendations made.  The key ones, in my view, are those designed to build a market for recycled plastic and to shift the burden of handling packaging waste onto producers.

First a quick recap of the numbers. Annually in the UK

• 13 billion plastic bottles used
• 7.5 billion recycled
• 3 billion incinerated
• 2.5 billion go to landfill

Recycling solar panels and PVCu windows

Over the years I have installed PVCu¹ windows to save energy (but actually mainly just to be warm) and solar panels for renewable energy - what will happen when they get old and have to be replaced? The way that we deal with materials at end of life can make a significant difference to the overall carbon savings. For example both panels and windows contain glass and other materials that take a lot of energy in manufacture. If they are recycled properly and reduce emissions from building the next thing, then the overall carbon emissions can be significantly reduced. Does this happen?

There are two issues with recycling that are slightly related:

1. What is possible? How much material can be reused or recycled and how much energy can be saved by doing so?
2. Does it happen? Is there a recycling supply chain that actually picks up most of the waste generated?

It turns out that for windows and for solar panels high levels of recycling are achievable. However, whether this actually happens or not is another question.

Is landfill best for plastics?

I used to think that landfill is the best way to dispose of most plastics on the grounds that when plastics go into landfill they stay there - it is a form of carbon sequestration. On the other hand when plastic made from fossil fuels rots in soil or is incinerated, the net result is the same as burning the fuel and contributes to climate change. Since the plastic has come from the ground the best way to finish with it is to put it back into the ground. The main problems with plastic are due to the stuff that doesn't get into landfill - the stuff that litters the environment, contaminates the oceans and kills wildlife. However, from reading a report from ENSO Plastics on plastics disposal [1] I have come to realise that plastic in landfill is unlikely to remain pristine for thousands of years. Nature is incredibly resourceful and we keep finding examples of bugs and microbes that have evolved to consume plastic that was not supposed to be biodegradable [2][3][4]. So what is the best way to dispose of plastic materials?

Can we make more sustainable clothing choices?

I was dismayed to read recently of the extent of plastic pollution due to microfibres that come off our clothes when we wash them. Depending on how sewage is disposed of these fibres will get into the sea or our agricultural soils. Ecologist Mark Browne has found that 85% of the human made material on the shoreline consists of microfibers of nylon and acrylic, almost certainly from clothes [1]. However, some synthetics are biodegradable and when other aspects of sustainability such as carbon emissions or water use are considered synthetics are often a good choice. In practice there are a lot of factors and our behaviour, in particular how we wash and dry our clothes, how often we do this, how long we keep them and how we dispose of them when we have finished with them all make a big difference.

Merry Christmas paper/cards

I love colour and brightness at Christmas. I love the cheery lights and shiny decorations; my beloved loves to poke at his presents under their wrappings to see what they might be (he's even older than me but adults can have fun too) and let's not forget the Christmas cards, a great miscellany of different kinds of pictures - do you try to guess the sender from their choice of picture, before you open them up? But those cards, and the wrapping paper, and also the extra packaging that comes with the presents, and the chocolates, boxes of mince pies... it all adds up. A writer for the Mail collected up her household's rubbish on Christmas day and filled 6 refuse sacks and a dozen cardboard boxes. Not all of this was paper, of course, but a lot of it is.

What is your recycled waste worth?

Some of the stuff in our bin is worth something. For most wastes the council has to pay someone to dispose of it safely but it is now the case that recycling facilities are actually paying for some of the stuff in our rubbish, which is good news for our council tax [1]. Sometimes recycling saves us money as well as protecting the environment.

Waste cooking oil for cars

Biodiesel can be made from used cooking oil, a useful fuel for your car which would otherwise be a total waste. Restaurants, pubs and hotels which use oil for cooking have to ensure safe disposal of their waste and an industry has grown up to turn this into biodiesel. You may be using this now without knowing because biodiesel can be blended with  diesel at up to 7% without any change in labelling. In fact the EU has a goal to achieve 10% concentration of bio fuel in transport fuel by 2020(1) even though the environmental impacts are doubtful when forest or agricultural land is turned over to growing biofuels instead (2). However the waste oil industry has a problem because thieves are stealing waste oil from their customers and turning it into biodiesel to be sold on the black market. Making legitimate biodiesel costs around £1.24/litre of which about 80p is tax but the thieves can make substandard fuel for 20p/litre. The industry estimates this could be cheating the treasury out of £25 million/year and costing them their livelihoods (3).