{"id":821622,"date":"2026-11-02T10:24:19","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T10:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/821622\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T10:24:19","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T10:24:19","slug":"ms-criticises-recycling-scheme-over-fears-it-will-hit-families-elderly-and-disabled-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/821622\/","title":{"rendered":"MS criticises recycling scheme over fears it will hit families, elderly, and disabled residents"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Clwyd MS Louise Emery<\/p>\n

Richard Evans, Local Democracy Reporter<\/p>\n

A Senedd member has called on the Welsh Government to pause the introduction of its recycling Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), fearing it could hit vulnerable families, the elderly, and the disabled hardest.<\/p>\n

Clwyd MS Louise Emery says the scheme could also leave councils facing additional recycling costs and a loss of income.<\/p>\n

The scheme, which will be launched on 1 October 2027, introduces a 20p charge for consumers on eligible single-use containers. These will include PET plastics, aluminium cans, and glass bottles.<\/p>\n

Consumers will then be able to recoup the 20p \u201cdeposit\u201d by returning the packaging to designated recycling collectors, with schemes using a voucher or card.<\/p>\n

But Ms Emery is concerned about how the scheme will hit north Wales families and the most vulnerable.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuy a 24-pack of water and you\u2019re charged an extra \u00a34.80 before you\u2019ve even got it to the car,\u201d said Ms Emery.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave a look at every item in your trolley and see how much that adds up to over a weekly shop. Ministers talk about this as a refundable deposit, but for a lot of families it\u2019s money they don\u2019t have spare to hand over at the till in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re elderly, disabled, or you simply don\u2019t drive, you\u2019re now expected to lug bags of bottles and cans back to a shop to get your own money back.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what happens when you get there and the machine\u2019s full, or it\u2019s broken? You don\u2019t get your deposit \u2013 you have to carry it all home again or travel further to find another machine that works. Nobody designing this scheme seems to have thought about the person who can\u2019t just pop back in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Conwy County Council\u2019s cabinet member for the environment, Cllr Mike Priestley, said the scheme could cost the authority \u00a31m a year in lost revenue, as councils currently sell on recycling collected from its kerbside scheme.<\/p>\n

Ms Emery has also pointed to councils losing out financially, with a loss of income generated through selling on collected recycling and arranged payments to cover this cost.<\/p>\n

This, she claims, could leave councils without the funds needed to process packaging that could continue to be placed in kerbside recycling while the cost of running recycling plants increases.<\/p>\n

Ms Emery is also concerned about the collection of aerosols, which she said would still need to be dealt with by councils.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat bill doesn\u2019t disappear \u2013 it lands on Welsh council tax payers, and I want the Welsh Government to say who is covering it,\u201d said Ms Emery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re asking people to post a bottle into a machine and come away with a paper ticket, like it\u2019s 1985.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this is supposed to be about modernising how people recycle, handing someone a strip of till roll to queue up and cash in doesn\u2019t feel like progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

She raised a further concern over Wales\u2019 decision to include glass in its scheme while England does not.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce Wales is charging a deposit on glass bottles and England isn\u2019t, what\u2019s to stop someone filling a car boot with bottles bought over the border, where no deposit was ever paid, and bringing them back to Wales to cash in a refund they were never owed?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a fraud risk built into the scheme by design, and nobody has told me how trading standards or the scheme administrator intend to stop it. There\u2019s also confusion with how businesses will cope, never mind the fact that unclaimed deposits will sit in an account of a private company and no direction yet on what this will be used for.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Welsh Government spokesman said: \u201cWe are working with Exchange for Change to make the scheme accessible and convenient for everyone, including disabled and housebound people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scheme will reduce litter, which will result in lower clean-up costs for councils and taxpayers. Glass is included from the outset but carries a zero-pence deposit for four years to give industry time to adapt and remove fraud risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cExchange for Change will publish further guidance for producers and consumers before the scheme starts on 1 October 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that drinks containers in the scheme will not be subject to \u201cduplicate producer responsibility obligations\u201d.<\/p>\n

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