Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme Monitoring and Evaluation: Consumer Research

5. DRS items are defined as drink packages that contain at least 50 millilitres and no more than 3 litres of liquid, come in a single-use container made of PET plastic, steel and aluminium, or glass, and are sealed in an airtight and watertight state at the point of sale and regardless of whether it is sold alone or as a unit in a multipack. Single-use containers are defined as packaging for a drink that is not conceived, designed or placed on the market to accomplish, within its life span, multiple refills by a consumer or multiple trips or rotations by being returned to a producer to be refilled by that producer for the same purpose for which it was conceived. Non-DRS items are defined as articles first made available to be marketed, offered for sale or sold by the producer on or after 16 August 2023 but that do not meet the criteria described above (e.g. high density poly ethylene (HDPE) plastic containers, the kind used for milk and some other drinks, or lined cardboard containers like Tetrapak).

6. Defining ‘consumer’ will also be important as in most policy areas this would be deemed to be an adult who purchases a drink (consumption in economic terms). For DRS policy, consumer is also defined as someone who drinks that drink (consumption in behavioural terms). Because it is the behavioural consumer who is likely to make decisions on how to dispose of the packaging, we suggest that consumer should be defined in behavioural terms. This presents the question: if the market mechanism acts on the purchaser but the behaviour is expected of the drinker, are there sufficiently strong mechanisms acting between the purchaser and the drinker to ensure the packaging is returned? Young people (e.g. people of school age) are likely to be consumers of out-of-home packaged drinks bought with their carers’ money. Consideration should therefore be given to also including people below 18 years of age in the definition of consumer for the purpose of consumer surveys and other research with consumers.

7. DRS is seen as a way of achieving a desired step change in the quantities of waste collected for recycling, with the best performing schemes in the world achieving a capture rate of up to 95%. Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) previously commissioned a survey of adults to form the basis of a segmentation exercise. The survey asked some very relevant questions that could be used in a baseline questionnaire.

Lots

This procurement was divided into 1 lots, each awarded separately. 4 bids were received in total.

Tender Documents

• Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme Monitoring and Evaluation: Consumer Research → — Award notice