Success for Scottish seas: Scottish Parliament votes through Deposit Return Scheme - Marine Conservation Society
Yesterday, after over five years of campaigning alongside all our supporters and partners, the Scottish Parliament voted through the final piece of legislation needed to put Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) into place.
Whilst this is fantastic news, we’re disappointed that the Scottish Government has delayed the start of the system from April 2021 to July 2022. During this time our beaches will continue to be blighted by increasing numbers of bottles, cans and glass. We are concerned by what this delay might mean for other parts of the UK and are calling on political leaders to ensure working towards lower carbon emissions and a circular economy is still a priority. Our work is far from over.
Scotland’s DRS is a huge win for our ocean, so we want to celebrate the news with you all, as we did not achieve this on our own.
Thank you to all of our Beachwatch volunteers for collecting crucial data on how much glass, metal and plastic in the form of bottles and cans were turning up on Scottish beaches. When it is safe to do so, we will be relying on you to help collect that data again so we can show the positive impact of Scotland’s DRS just as we did with the 5p carrier bag charge.
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Posted On: 14/05/2020