Welsh DRS gets glass go-ahead
The inclusion of glass in Wales’ deposit return scheme (DRS) could discourage investment and lead to a “significant trade barrier”, the UK Spirits Alliance has warned.
Wales plans to introduce a DRS for drink containers, scheduled to launch on 1 October 2027, aligning with other UK nations.
The scheme provides refunds to customers who return their empty drinks containers (after paying an initial fee) to participating sites, with the aim of promoting recycling and reuse.
However, Wales has faced backlash from the drinks industry for its inclusion of glass in the scheme as other nations have excluded it.
An announcement published last week by the Welsh government confirmed the scheme has been given the green light to include glass, despite its exclusion from the UK Internal Market Act.
The Act aims to ensure frictionless trade across the four nations, preventing countries from setting different standards across the UK.
Huw Irranca-Davies, deputy first minister and cabinet secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, said: “We have always been clear that we need to progress a scheme which meets Wales’ needs and delivers improvement against our high recycling rates, whilst managing interoperability across the UK.
“In practice, this means a scheme that includes glass bottles in Wales, even though the previous UK government chose to diverge from that previously collectively agreed scope.
“That difference in scope has meant the need for an exclusion from the UK Internal Market Act. Through partnership working with the other governments in the UK, I am pleased to be able to confirm their agreement to that exclusion being brought forward.”
The Welsh DRS scheme will include PET plastic bottles, aluminium and steel cans, and glass bottles (150ml to three litres) when it launches. Previously, the Welsh government had planned to launch its DRS without glass and phase the material in gradually.
This latest announcement confirms that glass will be collected from the onset but without a deposit for the first four years as a transitional measure.
Irranca-Davies believes this transition “gives industry time to adapt to the requirements which will then apply to glass drinks containers in parallel with the phasing in of reuse”.
The DRS scheme will also allow people in Wales to donate their deposit refunds to charity.
The new regulations set out in the DRS scheme are subject to approval from the Senedd (Welsh Parliament).
‘Undermine the UK’s competitiveness’
The UK Spirits Alliance was critical of the move, and said the decision to allow Wales to include glass would discourage investment and “undermine the UK’s competitiveness”.
It continued: “Businesses across our sector are desperate for certainty; the UK Internal Market Act was put in place to ensure frictionless trade across the union.
“This is another sad day for the sector and the government’s push for growth has taken another hit.”
Meanwhile, the representative body for the nation’s glass industry, British Glass, called for clarity on how the scheme in Wales will operate.
“We acknowledge the extension of a transitional period to 2031, however the decision means that businesses operating across the UK will be required to comply with different regulatory frameworks in Wales compared to England and Scotland,” British Glass said in a statement.
“Such divergence risks creating complexity, confusion and additional burdens for producers and the supply chain. Separate systems for glass drinks containers will inevitably introduce extra costs for businesses operating on a UK-wide basis.”
It also warned the scheme would lead to “negative consequences for both Welsh consumes and the wider economy”, adding it has the “potential for market fragmentation, increased costs, cross-border complexity and unintended environmental impacts”.
British Glass said it would work closely with the UK and Welsh governments to find out how it would impact the industry and ensure there would be minimal disruption.
The Welsh government recently confirmed it would increase minimum unit pricing (MUP) on alcohol to 65p from October 2026.
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