Drinks sector slams glass inclusion in Welsh DRS
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.”
Trade group the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) also slammed the inclusion of glass, with chief executive Miles Beale calling it a “recipe for disaster”.
“It will lead to a wide range of wine and spirit products disappearing from Welsh shops and supermarkets and create a barrier to trade that simply does not need to exist,” Beale warned.
“It should be blindingly obvious that the only way to ensure unhindered market access and a successful DRS is to align the scope of materials across all of the UK.”
Limit access to products
Mark Kent, chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association, also made a similar warning.
“We have repeatedly called for any DRS to be consistent and interoperable across the UK to avoid additional complexity and cost for producers and consumers,” Kent noted.
“The Welsh DRS as currently devised would hamper the efforts of businesses to bring about a more circular economy, increase the regulatory burden, and lead to fewer products on sale to consumers given the higher cost of supplying the Welsh market.”
Kent believes the decision will harm the availability of Scotch whisky to Welsh consumers.
UKHospitality’s chair, Kate Nicholls, warned that the decision is a “backwards step”.
“Wales choosing to take a different approach will lead to higher costs and a reduction of choice for people across Wales,” she continued.
“The Welsh government needs to urgently alter its path to deliver a workable solution that can maintain and enhance our already excellent recycling rates, rather than hinder it.”
‘Cross-border complexity’
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.
Related news
