The deposit return scheme, for a unit with a serving counter

A deposit item is a container drink other than a registered low volume product, and a container drink is a drink in a securely closed container. A container is a bottle or can, including its label and its closure, made wholly or mainly of aluminium, PET plastic or steel, holding at least 150 millilitres and no more than three litres, and likely to be used only once or for a short time before being discarded.

So. A canned soft drink and a PET bottle are in. A glass bottle is not, because glass is not an in-scope material. A coffee in a paper cup with a lid is not a bottle or a can. A keg is over three litres. Read your own drinks list against those four tests first.

A groceries retailer is a supermarket of any size, a grocery store, a convenience store or a newsagent. The definition then excludes three things by name: premises whose main business is selling prepared food for consumption off the premises as part of a takeaway service, a coffee shop whether or not it sells food and drink consumed on the premises, and a hospitality venue such as a bar, restaurant or club selling for consumption on the premises.

So. A food trailer, a coffee trailer and a mobile bar are each named in the exclusions rather than in the definition. If you are not a groceries retailer, regulation 34 does not reach you at all and there is no return point question to answer.

MRP premises means premises at, on or from which the retailer sells groceries to consumers, other than three things: a motor vehicle, ship or boat, train, tram, aircraft or hovercraft, in each case provided it is not permanently stationary; premises selling only through a vending machine; and on-sale premises.

So. A trailer that moves is not a permanently stationary anything. Whether a drawbar trailer is a motor vehicle for this purpose is not obvious on the face of the instrument, and a unit that has stood on the same pitch for three years is a different question again. Both are worth asking before assuming the exclusion applies.

A scheme supplier must charge a customer a deposit for each deposit item supplied. But a scheme supplier who supplies deposit items for immediate consumption at or on any mixed retail or on-sale premises may decide not to charge a deposit for those items. That is an opt-out decision, and it can be reversed at any time.

So. On-sale premises means premises where deposit items are supplied only for consumption there. Mixed retail means both there and away. A serving counter is one or the other, which is what puts the opt-out within reach of almost every unit.

Display the opt-out information clearly and accessibly, so it is available to people choosing items for immediate consumption. The information is two statements: that you are not required to charge a deposit on items supplied for immediate consumption here, and a request that empty containers are not removed from the premises.

So. That is a sign, in a place a customer reads before they choose. On a unit with two square metres of counter, where it goes is a specification question rather than an afterthought.