The UK has introduced two producer-pays schemes for packaging. Packaging extended producer responsibility (pEPR) went live in April 2025, administered by PackUK. In its first year the base fee for plastic packaging was £423 per tonne, compared with £192 for glass; from 2026/27 fees will be modulated by recyclability using a red-amber-green rating.
A deposit return scheme (DRS) for drinks containers will launch on 1 October 2027 across England, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Wales will launch its own scheme on the same date. It also covers glass bottles, with no deposit charged on glass for the first four years. Consumers will pay a 20p deposit on PET plastic, aluminium and steel containers between 150 ml and 3 litres, refunded on return. Glass is excluded in England and Northern Ireland. The scheme is run by the UK Deposit Management Organisation.
These schemes matter because they shift the cost of packaging waste from councils and taxpayers to the companies that put packaging on the market, and deposit schemes elsewhere achieve 90%+ return rates.
Both are new: pEPR fees have been criticised by industry and DRS has been delayed several times, so outcomes are not yet measurable.