GlenWyvis Distillery in Dingwall calls for a rethink of Scottish Government recycling scheme
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GlenWyvis Distillery is one of around a dozen Highland firms who have signed an open letter calling for a delay to the Deposit Return Scheme, due to come into force in 2023.
Under the scheme everyone buying drink in glass, metal or plastic containers of between 50ml and three litres in size would pay a 20p deposit to be refunded if and when they return the container for recycling.
Alongside GlenWyvis, among 500 other signatories who have raised concerns with circular economy minister Lorna Slater are Cromarty Brewing Co, Dornoch Distillery, Dunnet Bay Distillers and Cairngorm Brewery Co.
The open letter states: “The small number of industry bodies who know of the scheme have openly expressed their grave concerns about the serious detrimental consequences it will have on tens of thousands of businesses.
“Chief among these is the drinks and hospitality sector, as well as local councils and retailers. Not to mention the obvious damaging impact on consumer spending choice.”
John Fraser, office manager at GlenWyvis, said the distillery – which was established on ecological principles – supports the scheme in principal.
However, he said: “But at a time when retailers and producers are facing unprecedented operating costs, duty increases on the horizon, producers facing increased EU pressures following Brexit and hospitality still recovering from Covid, 2023 is not the time to be adding an additional level of regulation and expense for our most local customers.
“There is probably going to be 30p or more added on to the actual cost because there’s going to be extra labelling involved, there’s going to be extra distribution involved, and all these extra things are going to be added to selling in Scotland, and those costs have to be put on to someone, which will be the customer. So it isn’t just going to be the 20p.
“There is also no sliding scale so the small companies such as ourselves who sell around 10,000 bottles a year, are being put into the same class as those billion pound companies who sell millions of bottles.”
The scheme was previously criticised in June by Holyrood’s Cross-Party Group on Beer and Pubs which said the chances of it successfully going live on time are “vanishingly thin”.
This week Highland MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston said: “The Scottish Government’s proposed deposit return scheme has been a shambles from start to finish.
“While these schemes can and do work successfully in other places, this process has now rumbled on for years and we are still no closer to having a workable deposit return programme in place.
“Small businesses – including the hospitality sector who I had meetings with last week – would face a disproportionate burden in terms of costs. They are crying out for some clarity from ministers.
“The Scottish Government clearly needs to step back and take stock.”
