Prime minister Rishi Sunak is being urged to directly intervene to save Scotland's deposit return scheme amid reports that it could be axed later this month if UK ministers do not give the go-ahead.
Lorna Slater said if an exemption from the Internal Market Act was not confirmed then the Scottish government would have to decide on its future. The BBC states that it understands UK ministers are unlikely to reach an early decision.
Slater told the Scottish Grocers' Federation that a lack of response could render the scheme "unviable". She said she was still working closely with the UK government to make the launch happen.
A UK government spokesman said it received a formal request for an exemption on 6 March, with the Scottish government having since paused the scheme until March of next year.
"It therefore hasn't been possible yet for us to fully assess the impacts of the exclusion request on cross-UK trade, firms and consumers," BBC quoted the spokesperson as saying.
"We will continue to engage with the Scottish government to realise our shared ambition to improve the environment while meeting the needs of consumers and businesses across the UK."
Meanwhile, groups such as Greenpeace UK, Keep Britain Tidy and the Marine Conservation Society have signed an open letter to Sunak, demanding the UK government grants an exemption for DRS in Scotland under the Internal Market Act – which regulates trade in the different parts of the UK following Brexit.
The exemption is needed as the scheme in Scotland is due to begin in March 2024, ahead of similar initiatives in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The letter, which has also been signed by the Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland, Friends of the Earth Scotland, WWF Scotland, Keep Scotland Beautiful, Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful and Keep Wales Tidy, also calls on Sunak to include glass bottles in the DRS schemes planned for England and Northern Ireland.
“The rollout of deposit return in Scotland in March 2024 will require an Internal Market Act exemption which we know is under discussion across Whitehall. Such an exemption will protect the substantial investment industry has already made in Scotland and ensure we start to see the environmental benefits as soon as possible," states the letter, adding that Scotland launching a DRS first could be “actively beneficial for England, Wales and Northern Ireland”, where the initiative is not due to come in until 2025.
“There remains one key obstacle to a truly UK-wide approach to the litter problem. While Wales and Scotland intend to include glass drinks bottles, as things stand glass is excluded for England and Northern Ireland.
“If this remains the case, it would either undermine the long-term interoperability of the various systems, or cost English businesses more, unnecessarily, when glass is subsequently brought in, as happened in Finland in 2011 and elsewhere.
“We would therefore urge you to intervene and bring forward a straightforward solution to this problem by including glass on the same basis as Scotland and Wales, alongside the Internal Market Act exemption for the Scottish system.”
The DRS in Scotland was delayed after Humza Yousaf was installed as First Minister.
The scheme will see shoppers north of the border charged a 20p deposit every time they buy a drink in a can or a glass or plastic bottle, with that cash given back to them when the empty containers are returned for recycling. It had been due to come into force in August, but its launch date has now been pushed back to March 2024.
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