Defra is working closely with stakeholders on potential changes to the household packaging definition in the Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (pEPR) regulations, including interim and longer-term approaches to dual-use packaging.

Any approach must be supported by sufficient evidence and be enforceable by regulators.

Defra intend to publish the Circular Economy Growth Plan and launch a call for evidence on reusable packaging soon. The department continues to drive circularity through a range of activities. This includes the recent publication of guidance to support English Mayoral Strategic Authorities in embedding circular economy approaches.

All products placed on the UK market must be safe. Under the General Product Safety Regulations, producers are required to ensure that products are safe under normal or reasonably foreseeable conditions of use, including where product features may present a risk to consumers. Producers are also expected to take account of the characteristics of those likely to use the product. Concerns about an unsafe product should be reported to Citizens Advice in the first instance. Producers must monitor the products they have placed on the market for any safety issues that may emerge and take action to mitigate risks.

The Government is committed to reducing single‑use packaging waste and supporting packaging reuse. We recognise that many consumers wish to use their own reusable cups, and many businesses already accommodate this.

At present, we do not have plans to introduce penalties for catering outlets that decline to serve drinks in customer‑owned reusable cups.

The Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) is coming to England, Northern Ireland, and Scotland in October 2027 and will focus on increasing recycling and reducing littering.

A new organisation called UK Deposit Management Organisation Ltd (UK DMO) will run the scheme. It’s a not-for-profit group, led by businesses. They were officially appointed in May 2025 (England & NI) and June 2025 (Scotland).

Once the DRS is introduced, the Deposit Management Organisation will be required to reach a return rate of 90% in year 3 of the scheme.

Packaging extended producer responsibility is an important part of government’s wider commitment to transition to a circular economy. It is the cornerstone of the packaging reforms and delivers a £1.4 billion investment to local councils to deliver better recycling services to households across the UK. Together, the leaders of the UK’s largest waste management companies have said that these reforms unlock a £10 billion investment in the UK’s recycling capacity, creating 25,000 jobs.

pEPR in the UK has some of the most generous support measures for small businesses across any packaging scheme globally. These are exemptions from disposal fee and recycling (PRN) obligations for producers with an annual turnover below £2 million and packaging tonnage below 50 tonnes; and an exemption from data collection and reporting obligations for small businesses with turnover below £1 million and packaging tonnage below 25 tonnes. These exemptions apply to approximately 70% of businesses supplying packaging in the UK.

The Government is committed to the delivery of these important reforms.

In autumn last year my department published an updated assessment of the impact of introducing the Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) scheme on packaging producers as a whole, when the regulations were laid in parliament. This impact assessment includes an analysis of the impact of pEPR on competition but does not include an assessment of the impact on specific materials or sectors.

pEPR in the UK has some of the most generous support measures for small businesses across any packaging scheme globally. These are exemptions from disposal fee and recycling (PRN) obligations for producers with an annual turnover below £2 million and packaging tonnage below 50 tonnes; and an exemption from data collection and reporting obligations for small businesses with turnover below £1 million and packaging tonnage below 25 tonnes. These exemptions apply to approximately 70% of businesses supplying packaging in the UK.

Draught beer and cider now pay 13.9% less in duty than their packaged equivalents – an increase of over 50% on the previous draught discount of 9.2%. This took a penny of duty off a typical strength pint.

The core objective of this relief is to recognise the cultural importance of pubs and other on-trade venues as community hubs and to encourage responsible drinking in supervised settings.

To ensure this relief is targeted at the on-trade, it is prohibited to repackage products that have received Draught Relief for off-site consumption. It is the intention that beverages that are sold to be consumed off site should pay the full rate of duty like their equivalents sold in off-trade venues.

Under the Producer Responsibility Regulations, waste exporters are accredited by packaging material, not by format, so it is not possible to provide an exact tonnage of beverage cans exported for recycling.

In terms of total tonnages, in 2024, and as part of the PRN/PERN system, 157,049 tonnes of aluminium packaging waste was recycled, of which 51,690 tonnes (33%) was exported outside of the EU for recycling.

The packaging EPR Regulations allow, in some circumstances, packaging collected by producers from consumers, and subsequently recycled, to be offset against their disposal fee obligations. These are currently limited to hard to recycle packaging (e.g. plastic film take back) which is not collected in local authority household waste kerbside collection.

Defra has not made an assessment on the breakage rate of glass beverage contains in kerbside collections.

This Government has set ambitious recycling targets under the packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) regulations, with annual increases to glass packaging. The packaging recycling target for glass in 2025 is 74% and will increase to 85% by 2030. Modulation of pEPR fees, which will be introduced from year two of the scheme, will be used to disincentivise packaging formats that are not readily recyclable by placing higher fees on these packaging materials.

The Government has also introduced the Simpler Recycling reforms, which will ensure that every household and workplace (businesses and relevant non-domestic premises like schools and hospitals) across England will be able to recycle the same materials, including glass.

Defra has not made an assessment of trends in the levels of recycling rates for plastic, metal and glass beverage containers.

However, Defra’s Impact Assessment for the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) uses external estimates of the recycling rates for beverage containers made of specific materials for specific years –

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2024/217/pdfs/ukia_20240217_en.pdf

Defra more routinely publishes annual statistics on the total amount of UK packaging waste that is recycled broken down by material types. The following table shows the amount of packing waste recycled by material types for 2023. The amount of recycled packaging is based on tonnages reported by accredited reprocessors and exporters under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations.

Table1: Packaging waste and recycling, split by material, UK 2023 (thousand tonnes and % rate)

Notes

* ‘Other’ includes materials such as cloth, corks, gel, glue, hessian sacks and wax used as packaging

Arisings estimates made at point of manufacture.

UK packaging waste figures by material types for 2012 to 2023 can be found in the UK statistics on waste dataset: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-waste-data.

Small businesses, including small producers and retailers, are key to the success of the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers. During the development of DRS policy and legislation, the Government worked closely with small businesses and their trade associations through dedicated sub-groups.

The appointment of UK Deposit Management Organisation Limited (UK DMO) has been made by government, effective from 2nd May 2025 as the operator of the DRS for single-use plastic and metal drinks containers across England and Northern Ireland.

UK DMO are continuing the engagement with small business and wider beverage industry representatives via their Advisory Group and their views must be taken into account as delivery of the DRS progresses.

UK DMO itself is an organisation that represents a significant portion of the UK drinks and retail sectors. The DMO application process has ensured that there is a wide representation of industry needs on the DMO Board. UK DMO also has an Advisory Group, which will include small businesses representation.

There are no plans to introduce a tethered caps requirement before 2029.

Existing provisions in the pEPR regulations only allow for offsets from disposal cost fees for:

• packaging that is not commonly collected by Local Authorities for recycling, defined as packaging collected by less than 75% of Local Authorities; or
• reusable packaging that has been used at least once and has become waste where that packaging is collected by a producer and recycled.

The current regulations do not allow for this. This is because there are real challenges in effectively applying and compliance monitoring such an exemption across all sectors and producer types, resulting in a significant risk of misreporting and fraud. Government however recognises the strong views of stakeholders and is looking again at the household packaging definition. A new period of stakeholder engagement on this issue will commence shortly.

Under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024, Deposit items of a relevant deposit scheme are exempt from reporting, recycling and disposal fee obligations.

Prior to the introduction of a relevant deposit scheme, steel, aluminium, and PET drinks containers are subject to data reporting and recycling obligations but not disposal fees. Provided that a deposit scheme comes into operation in at least one part of the UK by 1 January 2028, steel, aluminium and PET drinks containers will not be subject to disposal fees in any part of the UK. However, if a deposit scheme is not in operation in any part of the United Kingdom by 1 January 2028, liable producers of steel, aluminium, and PET drinks containers will also pay disposal fees for this packaging.

Glass drinks containers are subject to the full range of pEPR obligation and liable producers are obliged to pay disposal fees for this packaging.

All steel, aluminium and PET plastic drinks containers across the UK are exempt from pEPR disposal fees but remain subject to reporting and recycling (PRN) obligations until Deposit Return Schemes (DRS’s) enter into operation. Should DRS’s not enter into operation by the 1 January 2028 this exemption will cease.

Glass drinks containers across the UK are subject to pEPR data reporting and both disposal fees and recycling obligations.