In a landmark moment for her campaign to address plastic waste in Wales, the Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Member of the Welsh Parliament for Aberconwy – Janet Finch-Saunders MS – has today secured a commitment from the First Minister that proposals for an all-Wales deposit return scheme will be brought before the Senedd in the Autumn.
The intervention came as Conwy County Borough Council launched a digital DRS trial in partnership with resources charity WRAP, the Welsh Government and Polytag. As part of the four-week trial, launched last Thursday, residents will be approached by recruiters and asked to sign up to the scheme. Janet laid a legislative proposal on the issue in November 2020 which found cross-Party support in the Senedd.
Commenting after her FMQ, Janet said:
“Last November, I was incredibly proud to have brought forward a legislative proposal for a Bill that would make provisions to introduce a deposit return scheme and to reduce waste in Wales. Importantly, a majority of 34 Members backed my proposal.
“Wishing to build on this momentum, I was incredibly disappointed with the publication of the Welsh Government’s Programme for Government which seemingly made no clear commitment to introduce a DRS. There is public and cross-party political support for the introduction of such a scheme, so we should be under no illusion that this was a missed opportunity.
“This is why securing this commitment from the First Minister today was vital. I have long said that Wales should be looking to become a world leader in environmental protections and moves to address waste. An all-Wales DRS - which is aligned to and interoperable with other systems across the UK – would go some way to achieving this.
“In my conversations with drinks producers, it has been made clear that the sector remains fully supportive of introducing a well-designed DRS at the earliest pragmatic opportunity. I will now look to ensure that this timetable is kept to so that policy keeps apace with this admirable ambition.”
ENDS
Notes for Editors:
- Under the Conwy scheme, residents will be given a set of plastic water bottles with “Polytag unique codes” on them. Once used, they will be scanned using a free app, and put out for recycling as usual.
- The bottles will be scanned by the council’s recycling team, and for every bottle scanned, householders will receive a digital token worth 20p which will be donated to raise funds for Ysgol Pen y Bryn.
- Polytag is based in Deeside – for more information, please click here.
Photo: by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
