The mayor of London made the claim when answering a question posed to the him during a London Assembly meeting held last week (23 February).
London Assembly is a group of 25 elected members, whose purpose is to hold the Mayor and his advisers to account by examining their work.
The question was asked by Conservative GLA member Tony Devenish. Mr Devenish wanted to know whether the Mayor is able to work with Scotland’s deposit management organisation (DMO) and London Councils “to see if we can get a plastic bottle recycling scheme pilot up and running before 2025”.
In response, the Mayor outlined that he is “pleased” that the government has committed to introducing a DRS and “strongly supports” the implementation of a well-designed scheme.
Trial
The Mayor didn’t give a direct answer in relation to collaboration with Scotland, which is set to introduce its scheme more than two years ahead of the rest of the UK this August. However, he explained that prior to the publication of the Resources and Waste Strategy, Greater London Authority (GLA) officers offered for London to host a trial DRS. The Mayor reasoned that the offer was not taken up as Defra stated they were not looking to establish a trial, preferring to develop a nation-wide approach.
Mr Khan said that “any trial will have to be closely developed as part of the national scheme to ensure that the infrastructure and processes are consistent”.
“This will ensure that unnecessary costs or burdens are not placed on Londoners and businesses,” he continued, adding: “Therefore, I am focussed, with support from ReLondon, on liaising with boroughs and the waste authorities to identify any concerns, and working with government to ensure the national scheme alongside other packaging reforms are implemented in a way that maximises benefits and works for London.”
Schemes
Both consistency and interoperability of the scheme between the UK’s nations have been heavily discussed as Scotland is getting ready to be the first UK nation to launch its own scheme in August 2023.
Concerns were raised about whether this was going to happen within the planned timeline, as candidates to replace Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister pledged to delay the scheme if elected (see letsrecycle.com story). However, the scheme administrator Circularity Scotland recently gave an assurance that the scheme is on course to be delivered in August, with more than 95% producers registered to date (see letsrecycle.com story).
Meanwhile, the UK government has published its long-awaited response to the consultation on DRS in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, stating plans to run the scheme from October 2025 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Subscribe for free