Diary of a Shopkeeper, 2nd April

At the end of February, I wrote about the Scottish Government’s ill-conceived Deposit Return Scheme, and the damage it could do to small retailers and producers in Orkney and across the country. There are funnier stories I could tell you, but the unfolding calamity of DRS demands more attention. Call it a horror story.

First I want to underline something I’ve gathered from conversations with retailers, importers and producers in the drinks and hospitality industry. 100% of us are in favour of increasing recycling and reducing waste. But 0% of us think the current DRS is a good way to achieve that.

What is wrong with the scheme as currently formulated? A few examples:

It’s being rolled out two years ahead of similar schemes in the rest of the UK, meaning that producers and importers have to follow different labelling regulations to sell in Scotland. Some have concluded they can’t afford the extra cost. One English brewery has started printing ‘Not for sale in Scotland’ on its cans. Three Blind Mice is not a beer most of us will have come across, but it’s just the first example of what will become a common trend.

Similar problems will affect small wine producers. One importer I buy from reckons about a quarter of their bottles will no longer be available to us after DRS goes live. And, when I ask French wineries whether they would create special labels for the few hundred cases I buy from them, they respond with incredulity. The DRS will result in less choice for customers in Kirkness & Gorie, and across Scotland.

Aren’t such schemes run successfully elsewhere? Yes, more than 40 countries have deposit schemes, either across the nation or in parts of it (some Australian states, for instance, but not all.) But they are not identical to the one being rolled out here. Many have evolved over years or even decades, and show responsiveness to the realities of the economy and geography of their country – and whether recycling can best be achieved by other means.

There’s a successful scheme in Germany, for instance, but its remit is more thoughtfully defined than the Scottish one: it includes plastic, aluminium, and glass containers for water, beer, and soft drinks, but excludes wine, spirits, and liquors. Not because Germany doesn’t care about recycling wine bottles, but because they have more efficient ways of collecting them than a DRS. Which comparable countries recycle the most glass? Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia, and Sweden. What else do they have on common? They don’t gather used bottles via a DRS, but instead through a simple Extended Producer Responsibility scheme.

It’s often claimed that the scheme is ‘industry led’, but which parts of the industry? In 2022, Lorna Slater, the responsible minister, had one-to-one meetings with Coca Cola, Budweiser and Amazon. Contact with small and medium sized businesses was restricted to group meetings which included multiple trade bodies. No surprise that the DRS massively favours the multinational big polluters, with their worldwide shareholders, and disadvantages locally owned, community minded businesses.

So blatant is the bad drafting of the legislation, a number of supermarket chains have now come out against it. I wouldn’t normally expect to find common cause with Waitrose or Sainsbury’s, but in this instance I applaud their contribution. And Morrisons Chief Executive David Potts has said, ‘The current timetable for DRS does not set the scheme up to succeed given the lack of clarity on so many key issues. More time is needed to deliver a workable and consistent scheme that enjoys the confidence of consumers.’

Unfortunately, the Scottish Government, and especially the Green Party, has painted itself into a corner. Any objections to DRS, or suggestions that it could be improved by delaying, are countered with claims that critics are anti-Scottish, or anti-recycling. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Truth is important in politics – despite what certain recent leaders around the world seem to think – and the truth is that DRS is doomed to failure in its current form.

Since this diary was published, it’s been revealed that, in addition to the supermarkets mentioned above, Tesco and Asda also believe the scheme is seriously flawed. That’s in addition to just about every small shop and producer in the country. There are also serious questions about whether DRS breaches UK Internal Market laws, and whether it is compliant with HMRC VAT legislation. And there’s more. But this diary is already depressing enough!

This diary appeared in The Orcadian on 5th April 2023. A new one appears weekly. I post them in this blog a few days after each newspaper appearance, with added illustrations., and occasional small corrections or additions