The what, how, why and when of deposit return schemes

[edit] What are Deposit Return Schemes?

Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) are circular economy approaches to what might be considered waste products, whereby a financial incentive is offered to return certain products after use to a central collection point, referred to as a reverse vending machine (RVM) or automated deposit machine (ADM). Often the products are empty containers or so-called single-use glass, metal, and plastic products, which can be washed, relabelled, and reused or recycled.

Such scheme are usually run by a Deposit Management Organisation (DMO) who set the deposit amounts, producer registration fees and payments for returns, communicate with customers, supply chain manufacturers and recyclers, and track amounts and targets.

[edit] How do Deposit Return Schemes work and where are they used?

DRSs are employed in over 50 countries worldwide as a common-sense means of encouraging people to recycle more single-use bottles and cans. Existing schemes may employ a member of staff to collect the items or have an automated deposit machine at their local supermarket. ADMs read the bar code of the item that will be recycled and calculate a return amount (usually a few pence). The total amount is then printed to a ticket, which can be spent at the supermarket for a cash equivalent or, in some cases, paid in cash to the customer.

[edit] Why are Deposit Return Schemes used?

Such schemes are generally successful over standard household waste collection services on a number of levels:

• Because there is a financial incentive to recycle (rather than a penalty for not recycling), adoption is high.
• Because product collection points are at local supermarkets which customers may be visiting anyway, they do not have to go out of their way as with recycling centres.
• An added advantage can be a reduction of single-use bags, as the bags used to transport recycling products from the home to the supermarket collection point can also be used to transport shopping once bought.
• Customers can choose the amount or number of items to transport and times that suit them, rather than at set times per week as with home collection household waste recycling.
• Such schemes reduce the amount and bulk of waste that is collected from properties by household waste collection services, reducing costs and potentially the carbon footprint.
• Because such schemes use automated machines, products can be collected with minimal damage, allowing the possibility for them to be washed, relabelled, and reused, rather than recycled.
• Because such schemes use automated machines that read bar codes, the number and type of recycled products can be tracked, accounted for, and linked back to product manufacturers and the number produced.
• Litter in parks and streets tends to be minimised because either they have a value to the user before littering or a value to a collector.
• In many countries with schemes, a secondary economy can be seen, whereby the poorer in a society become collectors and can benefit from a small but necessary means of income in return for clearing and collecting.

[edit] Deposit Return Schemes in the UK

In January 2026 the government published

In July 2024, under the new the Labour government, Mary Creagh MP was appointed as Minister of Nature in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs with a responsibility for circular economy. In December 2024 the government established the Circular Economy Taskforce, the chair of which was named as former Ellen MacArthur Foundation CEO Andrew Morlet.

In January 2025 the government announced it was 'to clean up communities with deposit return scheme for plastic bottles and cans' with a Deposit Return Scheme to be introduced in the UK from 1 October 2027. New legislation for England and Northern Ireland to come into force in April 2025 will enable the appointment of Deposit Management Organisations (DMO) to administrator a scheme.

Government steps towards a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles and cans was described by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy as 'a silver bullet that will get plastic drinks bottles and aluminium cans out of our parks, off our streets and away from our rivers and seas.'

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

• Circular economy.
• Commercial waste.
• Definition of waste: Code of practice.
• Delivering waste efficiency in commercial buildings: A guide for facilities managers.
• Deposit management organisation DMO.
• Disposal.
• Eliminating waste at scale – opportunities for blockchain.
• Fly-tipping.
• Government steps towards a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles and cans.
• Hazardous waste.
• Household waste.
• Industrial waste.
• Landfill tax.
• London plan.
• ‎Our waste, our resources: a strategy for England.
• Recycling.
• The Circular Economy Task Force.
• Site waste management plan.
• Waste and Resources Action Programme WRAP.
• Waste management - explained.
• Waste management process.
• Waste.
• Wishcycling.