Ministers must use delay to fix bottle return scheme

Responding to confirmation that the DRS scheme has been paused until March 2024, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

"This delay must be used to look again at all the other proposals that have been made to iron out the problems with the scheme.

"Deposit return schemes operate without issue in many other European countries but ministers have made a real mess of the Scottish scheme.

"If firms are being asked to invest and make plans over the next ten months, the government needs to be clear about where they stand. Ministers cannot afford to repeat the same mistakes again."