Share of UK companies utilizing recycled plastic in packaging rising from 31% to 44%
A brand new UK tax on plastic packaging already appears to be working with the quantity of packaging within the UK* containing recycled plastic rising from 31% of all packaging when the tax was launched to 44% inside the first six months, says multinational legislation agency Pinsent Masons.
The UK Plastic Packaging tax locations a £200 per tonne levy on plastic packaging with lower than 30% recycled content material. The target of the tax is to encourage larger utilization of recycled plastics in packaging plastic, by making non-recycled packaging dearer.
Abigail McGregor, Authorized Director at Pinsent Masons, says that the surge in enterprise utilization of recycled plastic inside the first two quarters means that the tax has had the meant influence. Nonetheless, she cautions that figures within the third and fourth quarters present the usage of recycled plastic packaging stage off, suggesting progress might stall if extra recycling capability isn’t constructed.
Says Abigail McGregor: “The brand new plastic packaging tax has offered additional revenue for the taxman, and prompted behavioural change, encouraging UK companies to quickly shift to utilizing recycled plastics.”
“While quite a lot of corporations felt that the introduction of the tax was not significantly clean and required quite a lot of steerage to get proper, the tax does not less than appear to be working.”
“There’s a danger that demand from companies on plastic packaging producers to incorporate more and more extra recyclables will quickly outstrip the availability of those supplies. Constructing larger capability for recycling is crucial.”
There’s a shortfall within the present UK’s forecast home capability for recycling plastic packaging, which at present stands at simply 700,000 tonnes a yr, representing roughly simply 20% of the nation’s estimated annual 3.5 million tonnes of plastic packaging waste.
A complete of 4,140 corporations paid the Plastic Packaging tax over a twelve-month interval.
* Produced by companies that manufacture or import 10 tonnes or extra of plastic packaging inside a 12-month interval
