The UK government will exempt glass drink containers supplied to pubs, restaurants and licensed hospitality venues from packaging extended producer responsibility (pEPR) fees next year, Defra has announced. The change is expected to apply to fees calculated from April 2027 for glass containers sold directly by companies to hospitality groups.
Defra said the decision responds to industry concerns that some businesses faced effective double charges. Hospitality groups fund commercial waste collection and disposal, while pEPR fees cover recycling and treatment of packaging placed on the market. The exemption aims to avoid charging them again through pEPR for directly supplied glass.
The pEPR regime began invoicing companies last year to cover the costs of managing recycling and treatment of waste materials. The government said fee structures were already under review and that the decision directly addressed concerns raised by the British glass packaging industry. It will also look at additional market engagement on management of the pEPR regime.
Defra said businesses will be consulted on packaging waste fees so that easy-to-recycle materials such as glass and paper cost less, while hard-to-recycle plastics cost more. It said this could reduce fees for the most recyclable packaging by up to 40% per year. The government said it remained committed to the principle that producers should contribute to packaging waste costs and noted that £1.4bn had been provided to councils through the scheme to improve recycling. It added that pEPR must operate fairly and not disproportionately affect some industries and hospitality businesses.
The announcement addressed glass sold directly to hospitality groups, while glass supplied indirectly through wholesalers remains an industry concern, with further campaigning expected. The British Soft Drinks Association said it looked forward to working with Defra on a solution for indirect supply that builds on the ratio-based approach announced in the decision.
Defra also committed to launch a call for evidence in December on mechanisms to support scaled-up commitments for reusing packaging as a means of curbing waste and plastics use. Early next year, pEPR administrator PackUK will hold a market engagement exercise seeking feedback on fees placed on manufacturers to cover packaging waste treatment costs and on how to encourage easier-to-recycle materials.
The government linked the announcement to market pressures on glass production and packaging, including two investigations by the independent Trade Remedies Authority into imported glass containers from China and Turkey. Following a recommendation by the authority, a provisional anti-dumping measure on Chinese imports was imposed on 9 September, and both investigations remain ongoing.
Environment secretary Dame Angela Eagle said the decision responded to calls from the packaging and hospitality sectors over charges on recyclable products. She said the government supported British business and was backing the glass industry and pubs while ensuring efforts to reduce waste.
British Glass welcomed the policy change but noted that the reforms would not take effect until the start of the third year of the pEPR regime, running from April 2027 to March 2028. Nick Kirk, the group's executive director, said the proposals began to address unintended consequences of pEPR and better recognised the environmental benefits of glass. He cited the planned update to the glass material value, the proposed acceleration of modulation factors and the commitment to review future fee structures as moves toward a fairer system. He also welcomed measures for hospitality glass but said the full impact of the proposed exemption needed to be understood.
Andy Bagnall, director general of the British Soft Drinks Association, called the announcement a significant first step to ensure drink containers used by hospitality did not face double-charging. He said soft drinks businesses took responsibility for recycling packaging seriously and that a successful EPR scheme could increase recycling rates and reduce waste, but unfair cost allocation undermined its effectiveness.
Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, said the direction on glass charges would be a relief to pubs across the country. She said the long-term cumulative impact of UK packaging policies must be considered if the beer and pub sector was to prosper in every postcode. The measures could reduce cost pressures on Britain's brewers by tens of millions, but the 12,000 publicans running leased and tenanted pubs as SMEs must also be included, otherwise over a quarter of Britain's pubs would not equally benefit, she said.