Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations 2020 (as amended): Fairer Scotland Duty assessment
Fairer Scotland Duty Assessment (FSDA) for The Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations 2020 (as amended by the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for Scotland Amendment Regulations 2025) and the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland (Designation of Scheme Administrator) Order 2025.
Final Scheme Design
24. The scheme will include plastic bottles made from PET plastic (the most common type of plastic bottle for products such as fizzy drinks and bottled water), aluminium and steel cans. These will be ‘scheme articles’.
25. The final scheme design enables consumers to take the containers from the scheme articles back to, and redeem their deposit from, registered return points.
26. Return points can choose to install reverse vending machines (RVMs) to collect the plastic bottles and cans and return deposits. Alternatively, they will have the option to return deposits over the counter, collecting the containers manually.
27. Return points will not be required to accept containers that are broken, soiled or not empty. Where a retailer does not sell a type of drink due to religious belief, they will not be required to accept the return of such drinks containers.
28. Businesses that sell drinks to be opened and consumed on-site only, such as pubs and restaurants, do not have to charge the deposit to their customers and will only be required to retain the containers they sell on their own premises for collection by the SA.
29. As part of the Joint Policy Statement, the three nations agreed to move forward with a DRS which does not include a mandatory requirement for retailers selling drinks online to provide a takeback service for containers. Deposits will be applied to online purchases of scheme containers.