The likelihood of a supermarket-led Deposit Return Scheme in Scotland moved another step closer with the publishing of a document stating that for online takeback “initially only the largest grocery supermarkets will be obliged to provide a takeback service”.
By Antony Begley
Another month, another very concerning indication that Scotland’s forthcoming flagship sustainability programme, the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), is set to be led by the major multiple grocery retailers.
It was a concern flagged up in the last issue of SLR with Scottish Grocers’ Federation Chief Executive Pete Cheema warning that Scotland could be “sleepwalking into a supermarket DRS” and the alarm bells have grown louder after the publication of a letter from Lorna Slater, Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity to the Scottish Parliament Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee.
The letter was officially published on the Scottish Government website on 15 December and in it Slater comments that, in terms of online and ‘distance’ sales: “I am proposing to bring forward amendments to the regulations so that initially only the largest grocery supermarkets will be obliged to provide a takeback service; all other businesses will be exempt.”
Slater goes on to say that “the takeback obligation on those supermarkets will be phased in: we will set a date for takeback to be available to the general public in 2025”.
This looks very much like another step towards a supermarket-led DRS, something which Cheema believes could have disastrous consequences for Scotland’s local retailing community.
Major consequences
“SGF has been warning for some time that we appear to be inexorably moving towards a supermarket-led DRS and the consequences of that could be very significant for our members,” said Cheema. “If we have to all intents and purposes a supermarket DRS on August 16 then the convenience retailing sector will forever be playing catch-up and trying to regain customers who have no choice but to visit the major multiples to return their empty drinks containers and claim their deposits back.”
Cheema’s concerns are very real and are centred around the apparent scramble currently taking place to ensure that DRS does indeed go live, in some shape or form, on 16 August. With so many key questions unanswered and so many major hurdles still to overcome, the Scottish Government appears to have reached the same conclusion that many industry spectators came to a long, long time ago: there is zero chance that the DRS as originally proposed will be ready in time for the deadline.
Compromise solution
The best that it can achieve now is finding a politically palatable way out of what has long been a clearly intractable situation. That view is reinforced with the publication last month of documents from the official DRS Gateway Review, made public under a Freedom of Information request. The Scottish Government has sat on the DRS Gateway Review since 1 June 2022.
The Review appears to accept the widely held belief that a fit-for-purpose, comprehensive DRS will not be in place for the August deadline.
Critically, the Review concluded that: “[The] Review Team finds that a fully functioning and compliant DRS cannot be in operation for the revised August 2023 schedule. The Review Team believes that a ‘softer’ approach to DRS implementation should be pursued but further urgent activity would be required to consider, assess and agree this possibility.”
Cheema commented: “The Final Report was submitted to the Senior Responsible Owner on 1 June with recommendations for future action and stipulated that within three weeks of the final report intended actions were to be provided for addressing each recommendation. Why has it taken until December for the Scottish Government to publish this report when we are so close to go-live? That is not good enough. The operational risks are still outstanding and have not been dealt with.”
Danger ahead
The big question is: what does a ‘softer’ approach look like? For Cheema, it only means one thing: “With every month that passes it looks more and more like the DRS will be driven by the supermarkets. Exemptions are now far easier for local retailers to secure which gives the clear indication that the Scottish Government will focus on ensuring that the supermarkets have the DRS in place on 16 August and they will consider that sufficient to declare that the implementation of DRS was a success. If that happens, the ultimate cost to the convenience retailing sector hardly bears thinking about. We would be handing massive footfall to the major grocery players on day one and we might never fully recover from that.
“SGF has been and remains fully committed to a fit for purpose, world-leading, deposit return scheme. We have spent significant time with the Government proposing changes and improvements to the scheme that we are still waiting to see enacted by Parliament. Along with this, the convenience industry – despite significant efforts to engage – are still not being given critical answers in relation to binding commitments on store scheme uplifts, community points, financing and crossover period that is impacting our members’ ability to plan effectively.”
