Glass drinks containers sold directly to pubs will be exempt from packaging fees from April 2027, the government said on Wednesday, saving up to £870 a year.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the change removes double charging under Extended Producer Responsibility, the scheme that makes producers pay towards the cost of managing packaging waste.
It covers glass sold directly from producers to pubs, restaurants and other licensed hospitality venues.
Defra put the saving at up to 6p per beer bottle and up to 10p per wine bottle. For a pub selling 10,000 beer bottles and 3,700 wine bottles, it said, that comes to up to £870 a year.
The per-bottle ceilings give a slightly higher total for the same volumes: £600 on beer plus £370 on wine, or £970, which is £100 above the stated figure.
Environment Secretary Dame Angela Eagle said: “We’ve listened to industry and hospitality businesses” and that the government was stepping in to cut fees for the most recyclable packaging.
The British Beer and Pub Association welcomed the move, with chief executive Emma McClarkin saying it could cut cost pressures on brewers by tens of millions of pounds.
She said the 12,000 publicans who run leased and tenanted pubs as small businesses must also be included, because otherwise “over a quarter of Britain’s pubs will not equally benefit”.
The British Soft Drinks Association called the change a significant first step and said it wanted a solution for indirect supply, where drinks reach venues through wholesalers rather than directly from producers. British Glass said the measures recognise the importance of the UK glass industry.
Defra also plans to consult businesses on the fees they pay for packaging waste, so that easy-to-recycle material such as glass and paper costs less and harder-to-recycle packaging such as some plastics costs more.
It said this could cut fees for the most recyclable packaging by up to 40 per cent a year.
A call for evidence on how more businesses can reuse packaging at scale is due in December. In early 2027, PackUK will open a separate call for evidence on the fees manufacturers pay for packaging waste.
Defra said the scheme has already provided £1.4 billion to councils to improve recycling services.
Separately, the Trade Remedies Authority is running two investigations into glass container imports, both begun on 5 March 2026, according to its public case file. One is a dumping inquiry into Chinese-origin goods and the other a subsidy inquiry into Turkish-origin goods.
The Department for Business and Trade said a provisional anti-dumping measure on Chinese imports, with tariffs of up to 53 per cent, took effect on 9 September.
Importers must give a guarantee covering the estimated duty for six months from that date, or until a definitive remedy is in place, whichever comes first.
The department said the UK producers sampled in the investigation employed about 2,099 people and generated £244 million in gross value added. Both investigations are continuing.