A poll published by British Glass reveals that the British public wants to continue to recycle glass through their existing household collections.
Polling recently published by British Glass, undertaken by Savanta, has shown the UK public would prefer to continue recycling their glass bottles through existing household collections, rather than through a deposit return scheme.
The new polling also shows that two thirds of UK adults (69%) say that recycling glass bottles through household waste collections would be more convenient than returning them to a dedicated return point, like a supermarket.
This figure increases to 77% for those aged 65+, who are more likely to face difficulties returning their bottles to reverse vending machines.
Headline findings include:
- Over half of UK adults (56%) say that they would prefer to continue to recycle all glass products through their existing household recycling collections.
- Only a third (37%) would prefer to pay a 20p deposit on glass bottles, and have to take them to a dedicated return location to get their deposit back.
- Two thirds of UK adults (69%) say that recycling glass bottles through household waste collections would be more convenient, with just 27% saying recycling glass bottles at a dedicated return point would be more convenient.
- Women (73%) and those aged 55+ (75%) are the most likely to say that recycling glass bottles through household waste collections would be more convenient.
British Glass and wider industry have long argued that the best solution for recycling glass is to collect all glass packaging at the kerbside through an improved system of consistent collections and a new extended producer responsibility scheme, and not via a DRS.
This would ensure that everyone in the UK, regardless of their location, can easily and conveniently recycle their glass food and drink packaging at their doorstep.
British Glass CEO Dave Dalton said: “We need to make recycling more, not less, convenient for consumers by keeping glass recycling kerbside. That is the only way we can achieve our industry ambition of reaching a 90% recycling rate* for glass packaging by 2030.”
Currently, the English and Northern Irish governments remain on course to exclude glass packaging from the scope of their deposit return schemes.
The UK Government is due to publish details of plans for the scheme’s rollout in early 2023.
However, Wales and Scotland currently plan to include glass, making the recycling of glass bottles harder for consumers and putting glass recycling rates in jeopardy.
*The UK’s current kerbside collection rate for glass is 74%.