Exchange for Change pilots Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) at this week’s Wimbledon qualifying competition.
The pilot will test how Reverse Vending Machines (RVMs) operate in a live event setting ahead of the DRS’s national rollout next year.
Danone announced the partnership between its evian® brand, The All England Lawn Tennis Club and Exchange for Change to pilot RVMs at this year’s Wimbledon qualifying competition, allowing spectators to experience how the UK DRS will work in practice.
The Championships Qualifying Competition is taking place from Monday, 22 June to Thursday, 25 June at the Wimbledon Qualifying and Community Sports Centre, Roehampton.
During the event, spectators can purchase evian® 75cl plastic bottles on-site, with a 20p deposit added at the point of purchase, reflecting how the national scheme will operate when launched.
Spectators can then return their empty bottles via one of two RVM collection points located across the site.
All deposits collected through the pilot will be donated to the Wimbledon Foundation, supporting a range of local and national community projects.
In addition to boosting recycling rates at the event, the pilot will provide an opportunity to gather valuable insights, helping to shape the consumer experience ahead of the national rollout of the scheme.
Speaking exclusively to Circular Online, Hannah Cornick, Danone North Europe Sustainability and Social Impact Director, said pilots like this provide a chance to see what works in real-life settings.
“By working with the All England Lawn Tennis Club and Exchange for Change to bring the scheme to life at the Championships Qualifying Competition, we’re helping to gather valuable insights to design a system that works for consumers, while also capturing materials from the event,” Cornick said.
“The pilot builds on evian’s long-standing partnership with Wimbledon, which has seen us continue to evolve our approach to sustainable hydration – from refillable stations for players and spectators to reusable bottle formats – making this a natural next step. It’s through collaborations like this that circularity moves from theory into action.”
While this pilot focuses on single-use plastic bottles and returns via RVMs, the UK DRS will apply to all single-use PET plastic bottles and aluminium and steel drinks cans between 150ml and 3 litres.
Evian has worked with Wimbledon as the Official Water of The Championships since 2008.
This RVM pilot builds on recent initiatives at The Championships, including refillable hydration stations for spectators and players and reusable bottle formats.
In 2025, Danone said approximately 40,000 refills were dispensed during the Championships, and 54% of spectator survey respondents who took part in the scheme continued to refill their bottles at home.
Commenting on this year’s DRS pilot, Kate McFerran, Corporate Affairs Director at Exchange for Change, said: “The insights gained from this pilot, as well as others taking place over the coming months, will help ensure the scheme is designed to be as efficient and consumer friendly as possible so we can all play our part in removing litter from our environment and building a stronger circular economy.”