"We understand that things need to change both with household waste collection and packaging on-the-go. We think a deposit scheme can work in that context."

Mr Brown stressed the importance of any scheme being UK-wide: "Packaging effectively becomes a currency in these types of schemes. The cross-border flow of materials is very important and needs to be designed into the scheme."

Overall savings

John Mayhew, Director of the Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland, which leads a campaign for a plastic bottle deposit scheme in Scotland, said it was particularly important the levels of the deposit should be the same for neighbouring countries to prevent people crossing the border to gain a greater deposit return.

However he suggested the use of barcodes could prevent bottles being cashed-in in a different country to where they were bought.

A recent report by environmental research group Eunomia found the introduction of a deposit scheme could save councils up to £35m every year.

Although councils would lose income from selling bottles from kerbside collections to recyclers, the report found the savings from reduced littering and landfill charges would outweigh this loss.