
Supermarket bosses have called on the government to further postpone the rollout of the deposit return scheme.
The (British Retail Consortium) BRC has written to environment secretary Steve Reed stating that the proposed October 2027 start date is “not feasible” given the threat to food inflation and high infrastructure costs, The Grocer reported.
It said the decision by the Welsh government to pull out of a joined-up UK launch risked the scheme not being effective.
MPs were due to debate today (16 January) on whether to approve the legislation for DRS, however, sources told the publication that it would be impossible to stick to the schedule without supermarket support.
Related Story
The scheme was originally due to start this year but was delayed last April until October 2027.
It has since been hit with further setback, including the announcement by the Welsh government in November that it was pulling out of cross-nation plans for a joint launch.
Tesco CEO Ken Murphy said last week that he hoped the government would agree to “manage and mitigate” both schemes “to the greatest extent possible” in a bid to minimise the financial burden on retailers.
“We would like to work with the government on some of the environmental legislation coming down the track such as EPR and DRS that could have significant cost implications for the industry,” he said.
Sainsbury’s boss Simon Roberts echoed his concerns, suggesting that Tesco could call for delays to one or both of the schemes.
“We’re very supportive of the ambition of those initiatives but we want to make sure that the industry can absorb the costs over the right timeframe to try to keep a lid on inflation,” said Roberts.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter