One Number That Matters: 6.5 Billion

Each year across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, around 6.5 billion single-use drinks bottles and cans go to waste rather than being recycled. The Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will change how a significant waste stream is collected and recovered, with implications that go beyond recycling rates. For councils, that change will need to be absorbed into services that are already running every day.

DRS also alters where responsibility sits once a drink has been consumed. Containers that would previously have entered the wider waste stream are now being given a defined route back into the system, creating a different set of collection and recovery requirements.

Neil Jeremiah, Managing Director at Endurance, believes this is where the discussion needs to go further:

“DRS will place different demands on council waste services. Once a material has a defined route back into the system, collection becomes part of recovering that material rather than simply removing it.”

“Much of the discussion around DRS has focused on recycling and litter, but councils also have to plan for how the waste stream will be collected once the scheme is introduced. The difficulty is that the operational requirements may continue to evolve as councils adapt to the scheme.”

“That has consequences for fleet planning. Councils need enough capacity to meet evolving requirements without committing themselves to a fleet that only works for one version of the service.”

At Endurance, preparation for DRS is already underway. We have secured more than 140 vehicles ahead of demand, giving councils access to additional capacity as collection requirements develop. For us, that is part of planning before the final operating requirement is known. Fleet capacity has to be available early enough to support the transition, but flexible enough to remain useful as the service develops.

👉 If DRS is changing the way your organisation is thinking about fleet capacity, talk to the Endurance team about the fleet available to support your requirements ahead of the scheme’s introduction.

See how Endurance helps councils deliver reliable services with our specialist vehicle services.

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