DJS Research Sustainability Case Studies

Digital deposit return scheme (DDRS) pilot

Business challenge: Every year UK consumers go through an estimated around 14 billion plastic drinks bottles and nine billion drinks cans, many of which are littered or condemned to landfill. The UK Government has set out plans to incentivise consumers to recycle their drinks bottles and cans, reducing litter and plastic pollution via a scheme where people can return their bottles/cans and receive cash back.

The new scheme, covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland, is set to be introduced in 2025, following extensive work with industry to prepare for the necessary changes and aims to ensure 85% fewer drinks containers are discarded as litter after three years of its launch.

Traditional Deposit Return Schemes are based on a return-to-retailer model, however a pilot to trial a kerbside collection technology platform was instigated by our client and in addition to the quantitative data obtained via the technology additional qualitative insight was required to understand consumer perceptions and experiences of the scheme.

Our approach: After recruiting hundreds of households to participate in the trial in a designated residential area of North Wales, a smaller sub-sample was invited to participate in a mobile ethnography study, followed by an interview, to provide an in-depth account of their user experience.

Outcome: Our research provided recommendations on DDRS education/communication needs, guidance on how to remove barriers to using the DDRS app and how to maximise engagement through optimising flexibility in the incentivisation for the scheme.