CAMPAIGNERS have demanded the UK Government gives the go-ahead to Scotland’s planned Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) to help deal with a “litter emergency”.
Supporters of the DRS spoke out ahead of a protest outside the UK Government’s main offices in Edinburgh at Queen Elizabeth House, where they turned up with cans and bottles they collected in a litter pick-up event.
David Spence of Fife Street Champions said: “We are in a ‘litter emergency’ and the Scottish and UK Governments must take the lead in doing everything they can to stem the tide of detritus that affects us all.”
It comes as the Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland (APRS) accused the UK Government of turning the scheme into a “political football”.
For DRS to go ahead in Scotland, ministers at Holyrood need to be granted an exemption from the UK Government’s Internal Market Act.
The lack of such an exemption was cited by the Scottish Government as a reason for the start date of the scheme being pushed back from August 16 this year to March 2024.
APRS, which has long campaigned for DRS, estimated that the latest delay will see almost half a billion extra bottles and cans littered, landfilled, or incinerated.
Dr Kat Jones, APRS director, said: “Every day this scheme is delayed, more and more cans and bottles are littered in our towns, countryside, and waterways.
“We have been waiting years for this scheme to be introduced, meanwhile the environmental cost is stacking up.
“We are in the midst of an environmental crisis, yet UK ministers are treating a basic recycling system as a political football.”
