Ecosurety backed kerbside return scheme pilot proves its value

Results from Wales’ first kerbside Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) pilot over the summer have shown consumers to be highly engaged.

The results from the pilot, which ran in Conwy, North Wales have shown 97% of registered households returning at least one bottle over four weeks.

Negating the need to return containers in person, the kerbside DRS pilot saw households receive six uniquely tagged Princes Gate mineral water bottles over a four-week period in June and July 2021.

During the joint initiative between technology supplier Polytag, the Welsh Government, Conwy Council, Ecosurety and Wrap Cymru, residents in Colwyn Heights, Conwy were asked to scan the bottles when placing them in their usual kerbside recycling containers, using a free app. The bottles were scanned again upon collection by Conwy County Borough Council’s household waste recycling team.

For each bottle scanned, householders received a digital token, each worth 20p. The results prove to Governments and brands that consumers would be engaged in a scheme of this type. Over four weeks, 90% of registered households scanned four or more bottles, with 73% scanning all six.

Leverage existing kerbside recycling processes

The Conwy pilot leveraged Wales-based start-up Polytag’s digital DRS ‘tag and trace’ technology. The innovative recycling platform enables brands to describe the packaging, then to ‘tag’ their packaging at the point of manufacture and with the help of consumers ‘trace’ it, so it can be isolated from the existing recycling waste stream and reprocessed in an optimal way to retain high value plastics and minimise downcycling. All consumers are required to do is scan a small QR-type code on a product’s packaging.

Traditional Deposit Return Schemes (DRSs) are commonly based on a return-to-retailer model, with extensive use of reverse vending machines and separate DRS counting centres managing the flow of material from the consumer to the recycling plant.