Sign up with Circularity Scotland
Sign up with Circularity Scotland to find out what your obligations are and how to fulfil them.
In this section:
Drinks producers lie at the heart of the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). Their drinks containers are the subject of the legislation and are ultimately responsible for what happens to them.
The DRS has been designed to ensure they are legally fulfilling their environmental responsibilities and Circularity Scotland has been created to help them do that.
The Scottish Government’s Deposit Return Scheme(DRS) legislation defines a producer as “the Brand owner”, or, where the brand owner is outside the UK, “the importer”. So, if you make drinks in the UK, retail drinks under your own label or import drinks into the UK you are viewed as a producer and have certain legal obligations under the DRS Regulations.
These include registration with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and responsibilities to take back packaging, repay deposits and pay handling charges. These responsibilities can be more easily discharged by appointing the scheme administrator to perform them on your behalf.
In Scotland’s DRS, a producer is a drinks brand owner or importer into the market (or the website operator, for online sales).
What you need to know
Producer agreement
Find out more about the agreement that will allow Circularity Scotland to meet your DRS obligations on your behalf.
Producer registration
Producers need to register with Circularity Scotland in good time to enable us to fulfill your duties under the DRS regulations.
Producer fee
The producer fee is the financial contribution that producers will make to ensure that the DRS scheme runs smoothly. The overall fee will be based on the number of containers you put on the market. The rate will vary for different materials but that rate will be the same, per container, for every producer whatever their size.
Packaging requirements
The Regulations don't require you to add new labelling to packaging sold in Scotland. However, creating a new label and barcode will improve the security of the scheme. It also enables you to add a consumer-facing logo to your label - highlighting that your product is in the scheme. For this reason, the producer fee will be higher for those products staying with the existing, UK-wide, label and barcode systems.
Cashflow
A key part of Circularity Scotland’s role is ensuring that cash flows round the system as efficiently and safely as possible.
Key dates for producers
Plans for a on-container logo were announced. Details are on the secure area of the website, which can be accessed by signing ip for information, or contact marketing@circularityscotland.com to obtain the artwork. A defined range for fees will be updated when running costs for the scheme are clearer. The producer registration process with Circularity Scotland begins The Producer Agreement will be available If you are not registering through Circularity Scotland, you must legally register directly with SEPA from 1 January 2023 Make sure that you have begun the registration process with Circularity Scotland before 17th February to allow us to process your registration with SEPA.
Autumn
2021
December
2021
Clarity on labelling
August
2022
Producer fee range announced
December
2022
Producer registration and agreement
January
2023
SEPA Registration opens
28 February
2023
SEPA registration closes
FAQs
Not necessarily. If you register with Circularity Scotland, we will register your business with SEPA and undertake reporting duties on your behalf. If, however, you don’t register with Circularity Scotland, you will have to register with SEPA and fulfil their reporting requirements yourself.
I only produce a small number of drinks a year. Do I need to take part in the deposit return scheme?
Yes. Everyone producing any amount of drinks for sale on the Scottish market in PET plastic, glass or metal containers between 50ml and 3 litres is legally required to take part in the scheme.
No. You can choose to administer the scheme yourself but the costs and complexity of doing this yourself are likely to prove onerous. This is why the drinks industry has come together to create a single scheme administrator in the form of Circularity Scotland.
Financial contributions will take the form of a producer fee charged on each drinks container placed on the market. Details of the producer fee are available on the document portal on our website.
This fee will be reviewed annually.
Circularity Scotland operates as an independent, not-for-profit company. It will run a professional, fair and highly efficient scheme that meets the collection targets laid out in the DRS Regulations while keeping producers’ fees as low as possible.
Details of the producer fee are available on the document portal on our website.
Circularity Scotland’s producer registration portal is now open and can be accessed here.
Registration is open now for producers wishing to appoint Circularity Scotland as their scheme administrator. You can regsiter here.
No, The Scottish Government’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) legislation defines a producer as “The Brand owner”, or where the brand owner is outside the UK, “the importer”.
If you are unsure if your business is required to register as a producer, please check SEPA’s FAQ page. Circularity Scotland are unable to advise businesses on the Deposit Return Scheme regulations and how they apply to their business.
Our Customer Support team are here to help and can be contacted by emailing enquiries@circularityscotland.com or by calling 0141 401 0899, 9am to 5pm Mon to Fri.
We recognise the regulations place additional operating requirements on producers, but there are important reasons for requiring this information. It is the responsibility of each producer to report the number of containers placed onto the market in Scotland, accurately and regularly.
If you choose to appoint Circularity Scotland as your scheme administrator we will lay out the details of what we need in the contract. You may wish to engage with your trade association to see how other organisations in a similar situation are dealing with this new legal obligation
We are not aware of any funding being available to support the Deposit Return Scheme implementation.