This clears the way for ministers to proceed with a glass-inclusive model when the scheme launches in October 2027, alongside DRS for England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
The Welsh Government confirmed the development as it laid the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for Drinks Containers (Wales) Regulations 2026 before the Senedd, describing the move as a \u201cmajor milestone\u201d in delivering a circular economy and cutting litter and waste.<\/p>\n
\u2018A scheme that includes glass bottles\u2019<\/p>\n
Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, Huw Irranca-Davies, said the exclusion was necessary because Wales will include glass bottles within scope, a key point of divergence from the DRS model being developed in the rest of the UK.<\/p>\n
In a statement, he said: \u201cWe have always been clear that we need to progress a scheme which meets Wales\u2019 needs and delivers improvement against our high recycling rates, whilst managing interoperability across the UK.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn practice, this means a scheme that includes glass bottles in Wales, even though the previous UK Government chose to diverge from that previously collectively agreed scope.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat difference in scope has meant the need for an exclusion from the UK Internal Market Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough partnership working with the other Governments in the UK, I am pleased to be able to confirm their agreement to that exclusion being brought forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Four-year transition period for glass<\/p>\n
The regulations define the scheme\u2019s purpose and scope and enable the appointment of a Deposit Management Organisation (DMO) to run the system. Applications for the role opened in November 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n From launch, the Welsh DRS will cover single-use drinks containers made from:<\/p>\n PET plastic Containers from 150ml to 3 litres will be included.<\/p>\n However, while glass will be in scope from day one, ministers have confirmed a four-year transition period.<\/p>\n During this time, glass containers will be exempt from labelling requirements and will carry a zero-pence deposit.<\/p>\n The Welsh Government said this is intended to give producers and retailers time to adapt and to align with the phased introduction of reuse targets.<\/p>\n Progress for Welsh scheme<\/p>\n Wales first announced that it would exit the UK DRS process in November 2024, stating that the nation will continue to develop a DRS which \u201cdelivers for Wales\u201d.<\/p>\n Irranca-Davies said that the decision was made due to issues \u201ccaused by the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020\u201d.<\/p>\n Ministers remain committed to aligning with the UK-wide start date of 1 October 2027.<\/p>\n Wales warned that the scheme would not proceed if the exclusion had been refused by the UK Government.<\/p>\n Andy Bagnall, Director General at the British Soft Drinks Association, commented on the regulations: \u201cThis is a big step forward in establishing a UK-wide deposit return scheme, enabling a unified approach for aluminium cans and plastic bottles, although granting an exclusion for single-use glass means challenges remain.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Welsh Government must also engage with industry to resolve the issues inherent in different schemes on either side of the border \u2013 including the risk of substantial fraud \u2013 to remove the cliff edge in four years\u2019 time when the transition period ends.\u201d<\/p>\n Scotland\u2019s delayed DRS<\/p>\n The Scottish DRS was delayed after the UK government did not grant an exclusion to the Internal Market Act to allow the inclusion of glass.<\/p>\n The scheme was slated for 2022 and saw its go-live date pushed to August 2023, before being further delayed in June 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n UK Government later announced that all DRS plans across the UK should align to a single start date of 1 October 2027, covering England, Northern Ireland and Scotland.<\/p>\n The difficulties with the Scottish DRS start date led to waste management company Biffa suing the Scottish Government for damages of around \u00a3166 million after being appointed as sole logistics provider for the scheme in July 2022.<\/p>\n The case went to\u00a0hearing in October 2025<\/a> and it was announced that Biffa had lost the case last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This clears the way for ministers to proceed with a glass-inclusive model when the scheme launches in October…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-289640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAluminium
\nSteel
\nGlass<\/p>\n