Introducing deposit schemes would help the UK

"All report significantly increased recycling rates. Surely a no-brainer, then, to introduce a similar system in the UK, which Ipsos-MORI research for CPRE shows would be supported by around 80% of people."

Claiming that the government was "intent" on finding reasons not to introduce deposit schemes in the UK, Mr Bryson added: "The fact of the matter is that the recycling rate in this country, while much improved in recent years, still lags behind many of our European partners and, as we have already established, we are world leaders in litter."

Industry concerns

The report acknowledged that there were "industry concerns" about introducing a nationwide deposit scheme in the UK, and in particular it explained: "Many existing and proposed contracts to build recycling facilities for local authorities are based on contractors expecting minimum amounts of material to recycle.

"If much of this material were instead diverted back to retailers and suppliers through a deposit scheme, the economics of such arrangements would be undermined, hindering growth of recycling capacity," it added.

But, labeling that situation "not insoluble", it said called for the potential of introducing a scheme to be explored "but only as part of a fuller review of waste policy".

Deposit schemes have already been mooted in Scotland as part of the country's 'Zero Waste' agenda (see letsrecycle.com story), but their effectiveness was questioned by a Defra research project published in December 2008.

The Defra research agreed that they would help to boost recycling rates, but claimed that "alternative schemes could achieve the same or better results at a lower cost", and raised concerns over the cost of the schemes - both to retailers needing to develop storage infrastructure and to householders who could less easily return bottles to get their deposit back.

And, it also said that, by preventing containers from becoming litter, the legislation, which is known as 'the Bottle Bill', had "significantly reduced" demand for landfill space.