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Written question asked by Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 24 March 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 26 March 2025. It was answered by Mary Creagh (Labour) on Tuesday, 1 April 2025 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.


Recycling: Public Houses

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that pubs are not charged twice for recycling glass bottles under Extended Producer Responsibility rules.

Answer

Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) obligates brands and packaging producers to pay the costs of managing household packaging waste. In most cases, this will not be individual pubs but the business supplying the pub with packaged goods. It is up to individual producers whether to pass these costs on to their customers. The pEPR fees are intended to incentivise producers to use less packaging and to ensure the packaging they do use is environmentally sustainable. For example, where producers use reusable packaging, they will only pay a pEPR fee the first time it is used. Reuse will therefore provide a significant decrease in fees and customers, such as pubs, will see a decrease in waste management costs.

Industry is already making progress in this area, the British Beer and Pub Association and ABInbev recently hosted a well-attended glass bottle reuse workshop where UK glass reuse trials were showcased. This included a Greene King trial which started with 25 pubs last year and which will soon be expanded to several hundred pubs, and the multi-retailer glass reuse trial that is due to start in Newport later this year.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
40943
Session
2024-26
Subjects
Bottles Glass Public houses Recycling Packaging
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk