CEO wins Prince Charles’ backing for our campaign for deposit return scheme

Keep Britain Tidy’s Chief Executive Allison Ogden-Newton OBE took the opportunity of her investiture at St James’s Palace this week to talk to HRH Prince Charles about the need for a comprehensive deposit return scheme (DRS) in England.

Allison, who was awarded an OBE in last year’s New Year’s Honours list, was received her award for services to the environment at the first ceremony since the start of COVID pandemic last March.

Speaking after the ceremony, Allison said the heir to the throne was “very enthusiastic” about the environment and told her he would support her plea to the Government to bring forward plans for a deposit return scheme in England.

She said: “We had a really enthusiastic chat – he’s very interested in helping us push the message home about needing a deposit return scheme, which is something that’s vitally needed and he knew all about the research that showed other countries had had huge success with it, and what a difference it would make the amount of litter.

“As I always talk about with Prince Charles whenever I’ve met him, he absolutely hates litter – he’s a really passionate advocate for anything that reduces the crisis that litter is causing in the environment.”

Keep Britain Tidy has been campaigning for an ‘all-in’ DRS, with a minimum 20p deposit, alongside other environmental charities for a number, of years now. An ‘all-in’ scheme would include all sizes of plastic and glass drinks bottles as well as aluminium cans and would help remove one of the most prevalent forms of litter as, by volume, drinks containers make up to 75% of litter by volume found on our streets.