Event overview
With Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) scheduled for wider rollout across markets, including the UK in October 2027, retailers are preparing for one of the most significant operational changes to impact stores in recent years. While much of the industry discussion has focused on sustainability, compliance and customer convenience, there are important loss prevention considerations that deserve greater attention.
This session will explore whether DRS introduces new risks that loss prevention leaders should be planning for today. Beyond the substantial capital and operational investment required from retailers, DRS has the potential to influence technology spending priorities, potentially diverting investment away from other store innovation and shrink reduction initiatives such as computer vision, access control solutions and other loss prevention technologies.
The discussion will also examine emerging risk areas, including voucher fraud, organised theft of deposit-bearing containers, abuse of redemption processes, and the impact of increased footfall from non-traditional store visitors seeking to redeem deposits. In markets where DRS is already established, retailers have encountered a range of operational and security challenges that may provide valuable lessons for those preparing for implementation.
In addition, the session will consider the broader impact of DRS on store design and the front-end customer experience. As retailers integrate reverse vending and redemption capabilities alongside services such as click-and-collect, returns, and last-mile fulfilment, careful consideration will be required to ensure customer flow, operational efficiency and security are not compromised.
The objective of this discussion is to bring together loss prevention leaders and retailers from markets with established DRS programmes to share experiences, identify potential risks, and discuss practical strategies for mitigating unintended consequences while maximising the benefits of the scheme.
This meeting is for retailers, CPG’s and academics only.
