UK plastic tax dependent on recyclates supply, ‘caution’ needed – BPF

LONDON (ICIS)–The UK government should exercise “caution” with proposals to tax plastic packaging with less than 30% of recycled content, as both recycling infrastructure and recyclates intake would need to improve, according to the director general at the country’s plastics trade group.

The UK government said on 29 October its aims to tax plastic packaging with less than 30% of recycled material from 2022 onwards, and announced a consultation period to fine tune the proposals.

Philip Law, director general at the British Plastics Federation (BPF), urged the government to apply “caution” with the proposals.

He welcomed, however, the UK’s intention to reform the current Packaging Producer Responsibility System (PRRS), which in his opinion should focus on incentivising sustainable producers. A consultation on this has also been opened.

The UK’s PRRS (see the official website here) ran into trouble in earlier this month when the UK’s Environment Agency (EA) said opened an investigation after reports suggested plastic waste exporters had manipulated the system.

BPF’s Law said that plastic tax was not welcome, although he conceded that its introduction was not a surprise as it had “been mooted in political circles” for some time.

“It [plastic tax] was something which we campaigned against: We wanted the emphasis to be on reform of the PRRS and we wanted that reform in such a way that the manufacturer of recyclable products would be rewarded and the manufacturer of unsustainable products would be penalised,” he said.

“We do urge caution [with the tax implementation, as we need to] make sure that there will be adequate supply or recyclates when the tax does kick in.”

According to Law, there will need to be “major investments” in the UK’s recycling industry in order to achieve the necessary supply of recyclates.

He was less forthcoming, however, on who would overtake those investments – companies members of BPF or public bodies.

“The government is probably hopeful that private businesses will step forward and see an investment opportunity,” he said.

“Secondly, we want the money which arises from a tax to be kept in the system. We don’t want that money to be lost to general expenditure – it needs to be applied to improving the recycling infrastructure.”

He added that there were “indications” that the proceeds collected from the tax would be directed to improve recycling infrastructure, although he said that thought he consultation process  BPF would “really need to be absolutely sure” that actually happens.

Lobbying groups sometimes win, but sometimes lose. While the plastics tax in the UK may be a reality in four years’ time, not the outcome BPF wanted, Law said that the trade group “kind of got” some of the things it was asking for with the intended reform PRRS reform.

“The way the PRRS will be changed will probably introduce a scale of charges that are modulated towards penalising the manufacturer of unsustainable products, and incentivising the manufacture of recyclable products,” said Law, pictured.

However, the major investments expected by Law in the recycling industry in years ahead would probably end up being paid by consumers. Although he promised that BPF member companies would try to reduce the pass through costs.

“We will be working to try to accelerate the uptake of plastics recyclates in plastics packaging items to try to minimise the impact of any tax,” he said.

“But as I said there is a consultation and this consultation will probably embrace the scale of the tax, the timescale for its introduction and all that kind of thing. And, indeed, its relationship to reform of the PRRS system.”

Recyclers in the UK have however welcome the proposals for both a tax and a reform of the PRRS.

Plastics recycler Recycling Technology said after the UK government’s announcement that the company was “encouraged” by the reform of PRRS, noting that only a fraction of the plastic used in the UK was recycled domestically because there was limited infrastructure for processing the material.

“[The proposals] should stimulate new investment in plastic recycling innovation and capacity [in the UK],” said Recycling Technologies’ marketing director Rupert Haworth.

Until the beginning of 2018, most plastics used in Europe were sent for recycling to China. However, those exports are now being directed to other countries – mostly in Asia – after China started cracking down on imported plastic waste earlier this year.

Pictured: Recycling bins in Cornwall, UK
Pictures sources: Global Warming Images/REX/Shutterstock and BPF

Interview article by Jonathan Lopez