Coca-Cola has changed its mind and approved a deposit refund for bottles of drinks in Scotland

Back in late January it was reported that the world leader in soft drinks - Coca-Cola - has long been preventing the introduction of a refund scheme for packaging in Scotland. The other day there was information that the company changed its mind and supported the trial initiative.

Deposit return schemes (DRS) per package, i.e. glass, plastic bottles and cans in which drinks are poured are accepted and very popular in some countries: Canada, Australia, Germany, Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden)… According to Zero Waste Europe, the introduction of the DRS scheme in Germany led to customers returning up to 98.5% of refilled bottles in exchange for a deposit included in the price of the drink and for the further recycling of materials from these bottles. This approach makes it possible to qualitatively reduce the amount of waste, which is often not subject to decomposition and ends up in landfills or in oceanic garbage patches . However, packaging deposit refund schemes, even in developed countries, are far from widespread. In particular, Scotland is only looking to try it out in practice.

Coca-Cola has been lobbying Scottish ministers for "at least two years" according to Greenpeace's Energydesk news site. It was in the interests of the beverage manufacturer not to introduce a refund scheme if customers bring back the packaging of the product, as this leads to an increase in the final cost of the product. But fortunately for the environmentalists, the situation has changed: Coca-Cola has announced support for a trial period for the introduction of a bottle deposit refund service.

At an event in Edinburgh hosted by Holyrood magazine, the Coca-Cola Company said they were already exploring the environmental benefits of a return scheme for drink buyers (approximately 10 euro cents per empty bottle or can). The head of the company's local office said that "Now is a good time for Scotland to try out new activities, such as well-designed deposit schemes for drinks containers." The Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland (APRS), which is working with WWF, the Marine Conservation Society and others to promote the introduction of such a scheme in the country, called Coca-Cola's announcement a milestone. According to a poll conducted by this organization in February, 79% of Scots support the bottle refund scheme , and only 8.5% are against it.

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