UK’s independent breweries have said that the implementation of a major recycling scheme should be to be delayed owing to a “shocking lack of details” surrounding the initiative.
The Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) are expected to be introduced in October 2027 but brewers, especially small producers, need 18-24 months from when meaningful decisions are made to successfully implement the scheme.
In a letter to ministers, the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA) said the sector faces what is described as a “Scottish style meltdown of DRS” because of Wales’s failure to appoint an administrator or provide guidance on how their separate glass scheme would operate.
The new DRS is supposed to be organised by a ‘Deposit Management Organisation (DMO)’ however the Welsh Government has failed to make a decision after previously rejecting the one application it received.
They also plan to include glass while the rest of the UK is focusing on cans and plastic bottles.
Despite this, there has been no clarity provided on how the glass scheme will work and interact with the separate Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme. This could also result in small breweries being doubled taxed in Wales.
The Scottish DRS collapsed in 2023 when it tried to implement a scheme with a different scope and timetable than the rest of the UK.
Andy Slee, chief executive at SIBA said it feels like “déjà vu on the Deposit Return Schemes” where a lack of clarity and different rules across the UK doomed the scheme in Scotland before it could even launch.
He explained: We want to see a DRS that works for all producers and consumers and the simplest way to do that would be to have the same scope and the same rules across the UK.”
“We’ve been trying to get clarity on how the DRS is going to actually operate but the Welsh Government has been dragging its feet on the appointment of an administrator and hasn’t clarified how glass in the scheme would possibly work”, added Malcolm Herbert from Core of the Poodle Brewery.
“The only way forward is to pause it for at least a year to give all four nations the extra time it needs to sort out the chaotic rules. If it doesn’t then 90 Welsh breweries will be negatively impacted, won’t be able to compete across the UK and beer consumers will lose out.”
