MCS ‘On Tuesday the 14th December the Scottish Government Circular Economy Minister Lorna Slater MSP announced a new start date of the 16th of August 2023 for the Deposit Return Scheme that was promised by the First Minister back in 2017. The scheme was meant to have started in 2021 but got delayed to 2022 and has now been pushed back even further to August 2023.
That’s another year Scotland’s shores will see bottles and cans piling up and impacting wildlife.
That’s another year our amazing volunteers will have to spend time picking up bottle after bottle and can after can. Enough is enough.
We need the big producers to step up and play their part. Our planet is already facing a climate, nature and ocean emergency – it can’t afford any more delays to schemes to help save it.
If it takes this long for the Scottish Government to deliver this scheme, already in place all over the world, what hope have we got they will deliver other sea-saving schemes in time?
If it takes this long for the Scottish Government to deliver this scheme, already in place all over the world, what hope have we got they will deliver other sea saving schemes in time?
Twelve years of delays
Scottish Government has had the power to bring in a scheme to tackle littering since 2009, politicians announced their commitment to do so in 2017, and yet we’re still waiting for the long-promised deposit return scheme.
As an organisation, we’re so disappointed that the Scottish Government has announced another setback , especially following the results of this year’s Great British Beach Clean continuing to highlight the problem of drinks related litter on Scottish beaches.’