Bottlenecks to glass return and refill in the United Kingdom: User Journeys to explore industry perspectives

Deposit return schemes primarily are aimed at increasing recycling rates, ideally for circular reuse. However, only 36% of collected glass in the UK is remelted for creating new bottles. This study used User Journey interviews with four senior representatives of key UK industrial stakeholders to explore manufacturers’ and value chain perceptions about a national refill scheme and to identify barriers and solutions. There was consensus that local refill may hold promise but that investment in colour-separated collection processes and raising recycling rates to over 90% could be a cheaper, faster and more sustainable approach to achieving Net Zero goals.