The House Opinion Article | Wrong-headed regulation is a risk to UK glass

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Glass remains a manufacturing success story at plants across the UK. It is a £1.3 billion industry, supporting well over 100,000 jobs. Highly skilled jobs, making the billions of bottles, jars and containers that we use every day.

It drives local and regional economies. And it has embraced sustainability, making steady progress through innovation and investment.

So, it is hugely important for the government to reconsider pressing ahead with regulations that have the industry worrying about what the future holds, or even if there is a future for this historic sector.

Big players such as O-I Glass in Alloa and Encirc, which has sites in Northern Ireland and the north of England, have spent significant sums on upgrading their facilities and stand ready to invest more in the name of both efficiency and progress.

Just over a year ago, I was lucky enough to visit the Alloa glassworks, which has teamed up with industrial gases company Air Products to build a new air separation plant there to supply oxygen for cleaner combustion in new furnaces.

It is the first plant for Air Products of its kind in the UK in 40 years, coming about in a unique partnership with the glassworks, marking a commitment to driving down emissions.

But large manufacturers such as Encirc and O-I have been left frustrated at government rules that appear to penalise glass.

The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme makes companies responsible for the collection and recycling costs of the goods they put on the market. If businesses produce or use packaging such as glass, plastic, or cardboard, EPR means they will now pay for collecting, recycling, and disposing of that packaging.

The policy’s objective is admirable, but its implementation has had unintended consequences.

The thing is that unlike other materials, glass is infinitely recyclable. And that recycling process is becoming more and more efficient.

However, EPR fees are calculated according to weight. And so, because glass is heavier than other comparable materials, it is being hit with disproportionate costs in EPR fees.

In fact, the UK glass EPR costs are well over twice that of any EPR scheme worldwide. And that is on top of the rising price of materials across the board along with soaring energy costs.

Drinks cans and plastic bottles are avoiding all the EPR costs entirely with these products due to be in a mooted deposit return scheme later next year and have been exempted from EPR.

So, while the glass industry is being negatively impacted, competitor materials currently pay nothing despite having a bigger detrimental effect on the environment.

It is hardly surprising, then, that glass manufacturers are carefully considering their future plans. The government should act to assuage their concerns and convince them that we are committed to UK manufacturing in general, and to the glass industry as part of that.

I believe there will always be a demand for glass. But if it is not manufactured here in the UK then we will see another industry destroyed and our society relying on more and more imports.

We are already seeing a surge in Chinese and Turkish glass on the shelves. Importing means those products actually generate a greater environmental footprint, undermining the core aims of the EPR policy.

The risk is clear in my mind. Future investment, jobs, and innovation could move elsewhere if the UK becomes an uncompetitive environment for glass manufacturing.

The solution is a clear one. EPR fees need to be urgently rebalanced to recognise that while glass may be heavy, it is sustainable, recyclable and a boon to the UK economy.

Unintended consequences can often be a part of politics. However, that is no excuse for inaction when policy goes wrong, as it is if EPR is implemented unchanged.

This is not a big ask but it is urgent. I have written to Ministers to urge them to talk to the glass manufacturers, tweak EPR fees and support an industry which has been a UK success for centuries.

We must protect the jobs it generates and raise a glass, or a bottle, to a UK success story that has a bright future with the right policies in place.