Glass drink containers sold directly by producers to pubs, restaurants and other licensed hospitality venues are due to be exempted from packaging producer-responsibility fees from April 2027, under a government plan announced on 11 November.
Ministers say the change is intended to address a cost faced by venues that pay for commercial waste collections while also encountering packaging charges passed on through their suppliers. It applies to a particular route of supply, not every bottle bought by a pub or every type of hospitality packaging.
The government also plans to seek businesses’ views on how packaging fees reflect recyclability. That is a separate part of the announcement: a call for evidence is expected in early 2027, and its outcome has not been decided.
Why the supply route matters
Extended producer responsibility for packaging places obligations on businesses that supply or import packaging or packaged goods. The system is intended to move the cost of managing household packaging waste away from councils and taxpayers and towards the businesses that place it on the market.
Depending on their circumstances, affected producers must register and report packaging data. Larger producers also face further obligations, including paying waste-disposal fees for household packaging. The scheme is administered by PackUK, which sets the fee rates and collects the relevant charges.
Hospitality businesses have argued that their position can be different from that of a household. An operator may pay a commercial contractor to collect bottles discarded on the premises, yet also face higher supplier charges associated with the producer-responsibility system. The government describes the planned change as a way to tackle that effective double charging.
The proposed exemption concerns glass drink containers sold directly by a producer to a licensed venue. It is the producer fee on qualifying containers that is at issue; the announcement does not say that a pub’s separate commercial waste collection bill will disappear. Nor does it set out a general exemption for all packaging purchased by hospitality businesses.
How the goods reach a venue is therefore significant. The announcement does not say that indirectly supplied bottles will qualify, and soft drinks representatives have called for further work on indirect supply. Businesses buying through intermediaries should not assume that the direct-supply measure covers every purchase.
Estimates, not guaranteed savings
The government estimates that the measure could save businesses up to 6p per beer bottle and 10p per wine bottle. Those are estimates of potential savings, not a fixed reduction promised to every venue or a change already in force. The financial effect for an individual business will depend on its eligible supplies and how costs are reflected in its purchasing arrangements.
The British Beer and Pub Association has welcomed the direction of the change and said it could reduce cost pressures on brewers. It has also asked for leased and tenanted pubs to be included, warning that some publicans could otherwise miss out. That concern is a call for further work on the policy’s reach, not proof that all such venues are excluded.
The planned exemption is intended for April 2027. The government says the broader principle of producers contributing to packaging waste costs will remain, and that £1.4 billion has already been provided to councils through the scheme. The announcement is not an end to producer responsibility for packaging generally.
Recyclability and future fees
The second strand concerns the charges paid on packaging that remains within the system. Ministers want to hear from businesses about fees that could make easier-to-recycle packaging, including glass and paper, cheaper than harder-to-recycle alternatives such as some plastics.
The government says the approach could reduce annual fees for the most recyclable packaging by up to 40 per cent. That is a possible outcome of future reform, not an announced cut for every material or a confirmed new rate. PackUK’s call for evidence is expected in early 2027.
Fees linked to recyclability are not an entirely new idea. The existing assessment method classifies packaging as green, amber or red, with fee adjustments designed to give less recyclable packaging a higher charge than the base rate and more recyclable packaging a discount. The forthcoming exercise concerns how the fee structure might develop, rather than introducing the concept for the first time.
A separate call for evidence on expanding packaging reuse is expected in December. Together, the planned exercises leave businesses with several distinct issues to follow: the scope and implementation of the direct-supply glass exemption, any further decision on indirect supply, and the eventual design of recyclability-linked charges.
