The first national trial of rewards for a digital deposit return scheme saw 21,000 cash rewards issued in 55 days, The Grocer can reveal.
Welsh recycling tech firm Polytag launched a trial across the entirety of Ocado’s milk range in July, using unique QR codes issued on the online giant’s production line.
It said the trial, which took place in England and Wales, was “as close as you can get” to how a full-scale DDRS system would look and proved there was huge public appetite for such a scheme.
Results of the Polytag/Ocado trial, which utilised the recycling tech app Bower, comes just a week after results were revealed for the first whole-town trial of DDRS in Brecon, Wales.
However, whereas that trial used volunteers to place codes on stickers in products in scope of the trial, the Polytag pilot used unique codes added in the production line process.
Polytag said it had seen more than 3,000 consumers using their smartphones before depositing products into kerbside recycling.
Whilst milk is not in scope for DRS under current plans, Polytag CEO Alice Rackley said the trial was “the closest you will get to proving digital DRS on a national scale is possible”.
She added: “The fact that this used normal production processes is hugely significant.
“Whilst milk is not in scope, the fact is it’s a high-volume, frequently shopped product. The trial also shows that a 20p deposit was enough to see 21,000 deposits in 55 days, or 350 people a day coming forward to claim deposits.”
Polytag is now embarking on a similar trial with the Co-op across its water bottles, in a further test of demand for DDRS. It comes as debate continues over plans across the UK for a traditional form of DRS revolving around a network of reverse vending machines.
Supermarket bosses have claimed the system is too expensive to run, with DDRS proponents saying the evidence is showing people prefer to recycle at the kerbside.
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