By Sean Poulter Consumer Affairs Editor For The Daily Mail
Published: 22:01 BST, 17 April 2019 | Updated: 16:02 BST, 18 April 2019
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Supermarkets have been warned they will be demonised alongside tobacco and oil firms if they fail to back a deposit and return scheme for plastic drinks bottles and cans.
The Marine Conservation Society, backed by Dragons' Den star Deborah Meaden, says only a fully comprehensive scheme covering all sizes of plastic drinks bottle, as well as cans and glass bottles, will tackle waste, litter and pollution.
The Government and Environment Secretary Michael Gove have announced plans for a deposit and return scheme (DRS), which might add a refundable deposit of 15p.
Government has announced plans for a deposit and return scheme for recycling plastic but campaigners fear it could be delayed until 2023
However, there are concerns any implementation in England could be delayed until 2023 and ministers are at the centre of a fierce lobbying campaign by the plastics industry to limit it to small 'on the go' plastic bottles of 500ml or less.
Currently, only around four in ten of the estimated 35million plastic bottles and 20million aluminium cans used across the UK every day are collected and recycled. The rest are either buried in landfill, burned for energy or end up as litter.
By contrast, recycling rates of more than nine in ten are achieved in other European countries with full deposit return schemes, such as Norway and Germany.
MCS volunteers found 21,000 items of drinks-related litter – glass and plastic bottles, drinks caps and cans – during one weekend in September last year, on the Great British Beach Clean, which
