Exchange for Change confirms flat 20p deposit for DRS- UK
Posted on June 3, 2026 by DrRossH in Plastic Recycling
Exchange for Change, the not-for-profit, industry-led organisation delivering the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, has confirmed that a flat 20p deposit will be applied on all in-scope containers when the scheme launches in October 2027.
Source: Exchange for Change confirms flat 20p deposit for DRS
The point for organisers to wahc out for is the return operators will want to lower their costs to a minimum which means use of RVMs and return depots with no staff. This means any crushed can or bottle with out a clear barcode will not be able to be returned. This can be a significant percentage of containers being returned.

How many people today grab a takeaway coffee cup from the local cafe to drink on the go? We don’t know, but the number must be enormous.. Most every one of the above have a plastic top that will last 100s of years. Some cafes still use plastic cups that last a similar time. Is 10 minutes of coffee worth 100s of years of trash?
These items can be seen littering our gutters and on our streets all over the place. If they were all cardboard, they would still be littered, but they would, at least, be gone in a short time.
They do not need to be made of plastic.
On the way home from the gym last week, a distance of about 1 km (1/2 mile), I counted the items of plastic litter on the curb as I walked. In that short distance I counted 63 pieces of plastic litter. Plastic drink bottles, bottle tops, candy wrappers, plastic film, polystyrene fragments etc. That seemed to be a lot to me. I guess it is a generational thing. Our parents would have been horrified to see that amount, whereas it seems to go unnoticed by our youth of today. In another 20 years how many pieces will there be on this stretch, -- 200? What will today’s youth think of that new amount then when they are older? Will their children be so readily accepting of a higher amount of litter? 
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