UK Hospitality Sector Faces Millions in Extra Costs Due to ‘Nonsensical’ Packaging Rules
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UK Hospitality businesses and industry leaders are protesting against the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme, claiming its packaging rules could cost the sector millions, with the additional costs inevitably passed onto consumers.
The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme, which is attracting criticism from leading hospitality businesses and UKHospitality, is the subject of a letter addressed to Steve Reed, the Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The signatories of this letter, which include the Azzurri Group, Burger King UK, Fuller’s, Marston’s, Punch Pubs & Co, St Austell Brewery, Stonegate Group, and Wells & Co, are urging the government to exempt packaging supplied to hospitality businesses from the EPR scheme.
Under the current scheme, beer and wine bottles are categorized as household waste and subject to a packaging levy, even when used exclusively on hospitality premises. This levy, imposed on suppliers, is directly passed onto hospitality venues, which also bear the cost of recycling the products commercially. This double charge is predicted to result in millions in additional expenses for the hospitality sector. Individual pubs are expected to increase costs by approximately £2,000 annually.
Given these circumstances, hospitality venues may have no option but to pass on this double charge to their customers. The letter points out that medium-sized outlets and small venues are already experiencing increases of around £750 and £350 per year, respectively. Larger pubs are seeing increases of approximately £2,000 in addition to their commercial waste contracts.
The signatories argue that the EPR scheme is flawed and nonsensical, as it is intended to recover costs for collecting household waste. However, most packaging supplied to hospitality businesses remains within the premises and should not be classified as ‘household’ waste. They believe that packaging directly supplied from suppliers to hospitality businesses, particularly those running closed-loop operations, should not be subjected to EPR charges.
The letter’s signatories include various hospitality businesses and industry representatives such as All Our Bars Limited, Azzurri Group, Beer and Buns Limited, Burger King UK, Cote Restaurant Ltd, Crerar Hotels, Eden Hotel Collection, Elior, Foundation Group, The Fulham Shore (The Real Greek and Franco Manca), Fuller, Smith & Turner, G C Mallen & Co, Glendola Leisure, Inn Collection Group, Marston’s PLC, MW Eat, Parkdean Resorts, Pho, Punch Pubs & Co, The Revel Collective, St Austell Brewery Ltd, Stonegate Group, TriSpan (Mowgli, Rosa’s Thai), Thorley Taverns Limited, UKHospitality, and Wells & Co.
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