British Glass has joined the aluminium industry in voicing fears about the potential design of the Government’s deposit return scheme (DRS) for drinks containers.
Technical director Nick Kirk told an inquiry by MPs on the Environmental Audit Committee that including glass in the scheme could have the unintended effect of increasing the use of plastic packaging, while limiting glass recycling.
He said this risked glass used for drinks bottles and that for other purposes ending up in separate waste streams between the return scheme and kerbside collections, which would hamper efficiency.
Kirk said: “British Glass does not oppose the introduction of a deposit return scheme but put simply it is the wrong solution for glass beverage packaging.
“It would split glass food and beverage packaging into two waste streams, to the detriment of both. It risks increasing emissions in the glass sector and reducing the amount of recycled material available to be used again in the manufacture of glass bottles and jars.”
He said international evidence showed the result could be more use of plastic packaging.
Kirk said the solution was to improve household collections and introduce extended producer responsibility.
Aluminium industry body Alupro earlier this week warned that including its materials in the scheme could also see an unintended increase in plastic.
It said a flat rate for drinks containers of all kind sowed mean for example, customers charged £4.80 for a 24-can multipack – in addition to the purchase price – but only 80p for a two-litre plastic bottle of equivalent total volume.
This article was written by Mark Smulian