United Kingdom: Plastic Packaging Tax

The tax will encourage the use of recycled, rather than new plastic, within plastic packaging, creating greater demand for recycled plastic, and in turn stimulating increased levels of recycling and collection of plastic waste, diverting it away from landfill or incineration.

The to-be-introduced Plastic Packaging Tax of 200£ per tonne will be applied starting April 2022 and will apply on packaging content with less than 30% recycled content of plastic, which has been manufactured in or imported into the UK.

Plastic in scope

The definition of plastic is as follows: – ‘a material consisting of a polymer, other than a cellulose-based polymer that has not been chemically modified, to which additives or other substances may have been added’. Alternative plastics - e.g., bio-based, biodegradable and compostable also falls in scope.

The definition of recycled plastic, which will be encouraged to use, is plastic that has been reprocessed from recovered material by means of a chemical or manufacturing process. Composites/multi-material packaging - where plastic is the largest material by weight, regardless of whether the plastic element is the main structural component – will also be in scope. Out of scope will be imported transport packaging such as pallets and shrink wrap.

Threshold and penalties

The threshold has been set at 10 tonnes of plastic packaging per year. Businesses that manufacture or import less than 10 tonnes of plastic per year are not liable for the tax and will not be required to register.

Businesses that do exceed the threshold are expected to register starting April 2022. If these obligations are not met, there is room for penalties. Penalties include fixed penalties and daily penalties which will be £40 a day for every day the business fails to comply or, in case of fraudulent evasion and misstatement, imprisonment or a fine not exceeding £20,000.

How can Pincvision support you?

Pincvision can support you with the registration of your company or its local subsidiaries with the environmental authorities in all countries in which you put products on the market. In addition we submit complete and correct declarations in the UK and other EU Member States. In short this means that we can take over your entire environmental compliance obligations, so you don't have to worry about it anymore.

Would you like to know more about our services? Please request our brochure for more information or contact us by calling +31(0)88-4321800 or send an email to info@pincvision.com

Source: ERP UK