 - seen by The Telegraph - the annual cost was estimated to be £171m a year back in 2019. However, analysis from the BRC, which represents major supermarkets, suggests that the annual cost to the retail industry will be at least £1.8bn a year from 2025, a figure ten times that amount. The scheme includes special 'reverse vending machines ' to be installed in shops for consumers to return plastic bottles and drinks cans and receive their cash back, with costs to the industry including ensuring the machines are protected from the elements or criminals as well as those associated with storage and logistics of returned bottles. The BRC believes that the costs to the industry will rise even further, as their calculations do not include the cost from the industry to set up an industry body to run the scheme, the cost of which they say would run into the hundreds of millions. 'A considerable price-tag' Craig Mackinlay, who chairs the net zero scrutiny group of Conservative MPs, said: 'The Deposit Return){kind=link}
Much of the cost likely to be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices, prompting calls for the scheme to be delayed or scrapped
The Government’s flagship bottle recycling scheme will cost companies ten times the amount that officials previously claimed, industry analysis suggests.
According to calculations by the British Retail Consortium, the planned deposit system for the purchase of drinks bottles and cans will cost retailers at least £1.8 billion a year.
Much of the cost is likely to be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices, prompting calls for the scheme to be delayed or even scrapped.
The BRC said its analysis highlighted the need for a delay to “rethink” current plans in order to “prevent the introduction of an unnecessarily complex and costly scheme.”