Business

Stormont working with Irish government to ensure north’s deposit return scheme is ‘aligned wherever possible’ with Republic

Civil servants working “to ensure that unintended consequences are identified and avoided”

Female hand inserts empty plastic bottle into recycling machine.
A deposit return scheme is due to be launched in Northern Ireland next year, adding costs to plastic and aluminium drinks containers, which can be recovered when the items are returned. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
By Ryan McAleer

Environment officials at Stormont say they are working with the Irish government to align Northern Ireland’s planned deposit return scheme (DRS) with the Republic’s, when it comes into effect.

Increasingly popular across Europe, a DRS for recycling plastic, steel and aluminium drinks containers is due to come into effect in Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales in 2025, although some reports suggest it could be 2026 before it goes live.

The Republic’s new DRS comes into effect on February 1 2024, increasing the cost of plastic bottles and aluminium cans by adding a ‘deposit’, which consumers can recoup when they return the empty item.

But efforts by the Irish government to reduce the risk of anticipated fraud, has created a new barcode border for such products, which has already resulted in some small independent breweries in the north pulling cross-border sales due to increased costs in producing separate labelling lines.

In practice, it means the same product included in the DRS will likely, from February 1, have two different barcodes, depending on which side of the border it is sold.

The Republic’s Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications told The Irish News that a risk of fraud exists where a beverage is purchased in one jurisdiction without a deposit and returned in a neighbouring jurisdiction where a refund is obtained.

“The risk of this type of fraud is much higher where the jurisdiction in which the beverage was purchased does not have a DRS, as is the case here with Northern Ireland.”

Stormont’s Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) said it is working with its counterparts in Britain to ensure the introduction of the DRS in the north has consistent approach across the UK internal market and on the island of Ireland.

“Officials here are also acutely aware of the importance to many businesses and customers of consistency and, along with their counterparts in England and Wales, have been working with Irish government officials, Re-Turn (the organisation managing the Irish scheme) and the drinks industry to ensure that deposit return schemes are aligned wherever possible and to ensure that unintended consequences are identified and avoided,” said a DAERA spokesperson.

“There is similar engagement with Scottish government colleagues as they take forward their DRS.”

DAERA said the schemes in the north and the Republic are already aligned on material type, i.e. PET plastic (Polyethylene terephthalate), steel and aluminium.

Both exclude glass, which already has a high recycling rate in both jurisdictions.

Despite the prevalence of aluminium cans across the craft brewing industry, a DAERA spokesperson claimed: “The exclusion of glass in both schemes minimises impact on small independent breweries.”

It’s understood that some breweries in the Republic are considering switching some product lines from cans to bottles to avoid the scheme.