A different glass: 87,000 injuries are caused by glass every year. Could plastic be the solution to the problem?

Lincolnshire landlords and drinkers are objecting to plans to ban the traditional pint glass.

The move has been suggested by the Home Office to cut the estimated 87,000 injuries caused by glassware every year.

Official figures show that 5,500 people are attacked with glasses and bottles every year in England and Wales – while Lincolnshire police say between one and two people are glassed every weekend in the county.

And it is hoped that a range of safer plastic glasses – polycarbonates – can be developed for use in pubs.

But many county landlords say such a move would be unfeasible and will merely hasten the end of the England’s proud pub tradition.

Andrew Neall, landlord of the Wagon and Horses in Branston, said: “Drinking from glass is traditional. If you take away that tradition, it’s going to mean more people drinking at home – often to excess with cheap drink from supermarkets.

“At least in a pub there’s a landlord to keep an eye on things and stop people when they’ve had too much.

“What’s next? Taking away plates and cutlery for pub lunches? Replacing the windows so no-one falls through them? This really is taking things too far.”



Sitting in a pub, chatting to friends over a glass of beer has been an English way of relaxing for many hundreds of years.

But has Britain’s increasingly violent binge-drinking culture put an end to this simple pleasure?

The Home Office estimates that 87,000 injuries are caused by glassware every year – including 5,500 attacks.

In an effort to prevent some of the horrific injuries glasses can cause, designers will spend the next four months looking specifically at creating a drinking vessel with plastic and polycarbonate at the core – in other words, a plastic glass.

But the idea has met with horror by Lincolnshire landlords.

Tony Payne, chief executive of the Federation of Licensed Victuallers Associations, said: “When people use glass as a weapon they should be made an example and the punishment needs to fit the crime.

“Taking the glass away isn’t the answer as people can always find something else to use as a weapon.

“People prefer to drink from proper glasses and this is another burden for the pubs.”

Alex Rutherford-Doak, cor landlord of the Dog and Bone, off Monks’s Road, Lincoln, said: “Obviously, these incidents are serious, but I think different measures can be taken.

“In some cases, like in busy city bars, its necessary, but I don’t agree with a blanket ban.

“But plastic is not quite the same as drinking from a real glass.”

Campaign For Real Ale spokesman Iain Loe said that introducing polycarbonates to pubs would be an insult to local brewers.

“When brewers take their time and effort to create a tasty beer, it’s a crime against them to pour it into a bit of plastic that will give it a nasty, tacky taint,” he said.

“Plastic drinking vessels should be limited to open-air rock concerts, or someone’s back-garden, when they’re drinking a no-name beer.

Terry Kinsman, landlord of the Tap and Spile in Lincoln, explained that in pubs like his, it should be real ale in a real glass.

“As an outright replacement, I definitely don’t agree. If they get smashed, they’re just as dangerous as glass. People are always going to find a weapon if they want to. Taking away pint glasses isn’t the answer.”

Spokesperson for Lincolnshire Police Dick Holmes said: “From my experience I can say that most weekends, one or maybe two people are assaulted with a glass or bottle.

“In general terms, glassing can amount to bruising and minor cuts, but occasionally can lead to major cuts, disfigurement, or even the victim being scarred for life.

“Glassing falls under grievous bodily harm, which is often the result of somebody being assaulted by a beer glass. But we can’t give an exact number glassing victims, as we don’t keep a record of how the injury is inflicted, be it with a glass or other weapon.”