Originally published in FMCG Business (August 2026), Robert Kelman explores the future of glass packaging in New Zealand, drawing on Reloop Pacific’s latest policy briefing.
Glass occupies a unique and valuable place in the packaging market. Consumers view glass as a premium, sustainable material; it’s infinitely recyclable, highly reusable, and when recycled back into new bottles, reduces energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Refillable bottle systems, once commonplace across New Zealand, are re-emerging, with a major brewer recently piloting a new reusable glass bottle scheme.
Despite these strengths, glass faces mounting pressures. Globally, beverage producers are increasingly shifting from glass to aluminium and plastic packaging as these materials are lighter weight, have lower transport costs, fewer breakages, easier storage and consumers seem happy with the shift. In markets such as Canada, aluminium now has a massive 85% of the beer market (compared to glass’s 15%).
Regulatory reforms are also transforming packaging economics, in particular for glass. Around the globe, governments are embracing Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) that require packaging producers to fund the recovery and recycling of their products. New Zealand has yet to institute such reforms but is unlikely to remain an outlier for long.
The reality is that New Zealand’s current glass recovery model is now difficult to justify. Local councils bear the overwhelming share of glass recycling costs, while industry contributions remain comparatively small. Kerbside recycling of glass costs councils tens of millions of dollars each year, while glass itself provides little economic return, can damage recycling infrastructure and contaminate other recovered materials.
The industry’s (NZ Glass Packaging Forum) response to date to improve the quantity and quality of glass recovery has been to advocate for separate kerbside glass bins. Rather than take responsibility itself via either a DRS or EPR scheme, the glass sector wants to impose even more costs on local authorities.
However, experience in Victoria (Australia) suggests this approach is politically and economically fraught. Councils have resisted the costs of an additional collection system while public surveys show strong support for expanding the state’s DRS instead to include wine and spirits.
Avoiding a NZ DRS does not mean the New Zealand glass sector would avoid producer responsibility. The United Kingdom provides a cautionary example. UK glass producers successfully lobbied to remain outside the DRS, only to find themselves subject to packaging EPR fees that are considerably higher than equivalent DRS costs.
The future of glass packaging in Aotearoa New Zealand
This Reloop policy briefing explores deposit return, EPR, recycling and reuse opportunities.
As a result, glass has become one of the most expensive packaging materials from a compliance perspective and producers are shifting away from this material to cheaper (and more convenient) options.
If NZ glass secured an exemption from a future DRS, it is highly likely to be captured by a future EPR scheme. Producers may then face substantially higher obligations without receiving the collection and infrastructure benefits that a DRS provides.
A well-designed DRS offers more than just compliance. A DRS provides access to clean, source-separated glass. Today, much of New Zealand’s recovered glass is contaminated or downcycled into lower-value uses rather than recycled back into new bottles. Even the industry’s own reporting acknowledges that manufacturers need cleaner streams and higher-quality recovered glass to increase bottle-to-bottle recycling.
Deposit return systems, however, are not simply recycling programmes; they are the infrastructure that also enables reuse.
This is perhaps the most important point the New Zealand glass sector could recognise. Glass’s future may well lie in reuse. Aluminium cans can be recycled repeatedly, but they cannot be refilled. Glass can. As governments, brands and consumers increasingly focus on waste reduction and circular economy outcomes, refillable packaging is likely to play a larger role in the future beverage market.