Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the deposit return scheme to food jars and sauce bottles.

The Government plans to introduce a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers subject to further evidence and analysis. The specific details of a DRS, including the material and drinks to be included in scope, will be developed further and will be presented in a second consultation. We may wish to introduce, at some point in the future, a DRS for other products such as batteries, electrical and electronic equipment and tyres. Powers in the Environment Bill will allow us the flexibility to set up a DRS for other waste streams should we decide to do so. There has been no specific assessment of the potential to extend a DRS to food jars and sauce bottles but we generally consider that a DRS may be the appropriate vehicle for articles that we regard as difficult to manage at end of life, are not typically recycled or are frequently littered or fly-tipped.